Forgotten Love
by Lexgo
Summary: Coming to a new school where you don't know a single person is stressful enough, but having a guy that hates your guts the moment he sees you? What more can a girl take? Coming to Duel Academy was always her dream, but is it now becoming a nightmare?
1. It's Only the Beginning

Kendra Fraser was a lovely girl with simple goals in life. They involved getting good grades, getting into a great college, getting the perfect job, trustworthy friends, and, naturally, finding the right guy. her expectations were extremely high for all of them. For as long as she could remember, she had the best grades, got all the scholar awards, had her eye on some of the best colleges in the country. This was easy for her because she was just plain brilliant, school was no trouble for her. Finding the perfect guy, however, was a totally different story. This said "guy" had to be kind, smarter than the average bear, funny, and had to be there for her when she needed him most. And, if possible, cute. No matter how much she looked, she couldn't find one guy who could fit the bill.

Kendra was gorgeous, fourteen years old, way above average intelligence, a mix between a red head and a brunette, and adored by every guy who laid eyes on her. Those who knew her best would say that her eyes were her most beautiful feature. Big, blue, bright eyes that had the longest eyelashes imaginable and were the envy of all girls.

Boys would go after her by the dozens in her teen years, but none had the qualities she was looking for. Out of all the guys she had met, none of them were what she was looking for. They were all either stuck up, boring, couldn't walk and breathe at the same time, or were just the biggest jerks on the planet. Soon enough, though, her boy problems would be over in such a short time after she joined Dueling Academy.

Dueling Academy was one of the most prestigious schools in the country and Kendra had had her heart set on it for the past decade. This school was best known for it's academic achievements and for it's dueling program. Teens from all over the country would come to this school just for the dueling. Only the best of the best were accepted to this special school and the less than excellent were dismissed. Ever since she discovered the Academy, she had a great fear that she would be rejected from the school of her dreams, so she spent most of her free time, that wasn't already dedicated to her studies, training and practicing with her father who was an expert.

Though Kendra was very happy with her life, she couldn't help but feel isolation from the rest of the world. All of her time was spent studying and practicing, none for friends. The few friends she ever had became distrusted and estranged to her. Either she had pushed them away unknowingly or they turned out to be fake friends. She hoped this would change with the new school, and unbeknownst to her, it would.

To get into this school, one had to first pass a basic test. Anyone who didn't pass was automatically disqualified from enrollment to the school. Math, science, English, excetra. For a girl like Kendra, this was a piece of cake. Her main priority was the second test, the actual duel of passage. Even if you scored 100 on the basic test, if you lost the duel, you lost the chance to go to Duel Academy. Winning this duel was her main priority at the moment. But she was more than confident that she would pass her test, win her duel, and gain her well deserved entrance to the Academy.

Naturally, she passed the basic. This was no surprise to her nor her family. It was simple enough, she even got the highest score out of all the applicants. Well, she tied, with a boy. Some guy named Matthew something, or was it Martin? Mason? Whatever, next was the duel that would, or course, be much tougher. After the announcement of the passing pupils of the first test, the passing few were sent to a dueling stadium in town to be tested on part two of their inauguration to the academy. Kendra would be the last to be tested. To her surprise, she was going to duel against one of the best duelists in the school while the others, to whom she paid little attention to, were up agaisnt trainers. In other words, she was in big trouble. This guy's name was Chad Princeton and he seemed eager to get her kicked out of the school.

As soon as she saw Chad walk out onto the floor, she fell sick to her stomach. His jet black hair shocking and his intense blue eyes cold and frightening.

"I'm not going to let some little girl beat me. I am, in fact, one of the greatest duelists at this academy and I have to keep my image," Chad roared, his tone as cold as his eyes. His blues trained on her browns, unmoved, unblinking.

_Okay, he has major ego issues. Not surprised._

Kendra's reply was straight forward and confident, "Let's just see what you say about that after you lose."

After a long and painstaking battle, Kendra turned out victorious and Chad humiliated. The crowd roared with excitement and cheered for her, her name echoing throughout the stadium. She couldn't beleive she won and was releived that it was finally over. In a few minutes, the dean of the school came over the congratulate her on a job well done. Deciding that it would be unsports like of her to just walk off, she turned around to thank Chad for a duel well played. No such luck.

"You're not all that great. You just made a lucky move. You will pay for humiliating me in front of the whole school, trust me, you will," he snapped, then quickly ran off before the other students could give him the business. In her mind, she knew he was a sore loser and was just trying to make her upset, but a little part of her really hoped he was just being sarcastic.

**Well, there's the first chapter and it's taken me two years to get here! Yay... If it sounds like something you would be interested in, please, keep going, when I write more of course. And if you were wondering, it's suppose to be a Yu-Gi-Oh GX thing. That's how my dream went anyway, the rest of it has next to nothing to do with it actually. Just to let you know...Johnny Depp is awesome! random**


	2. New People, a New Life

A little later, she was assigned to the O Blue dorm, which was the dorm for the most advanced students and all the girls. She went to pick up her new attire and schedule then sat down on a bench to relax a little and rest her feet. It was a huge campus.

_Oh, boy. What a day. There's already a dude that hates my guts here. Getting off to a great start._

Not long after just sitting down, nearly the whole student body of the school rushed to her and congratulated her on a job well done on beating Chad. She both loved and hated the attention she was getting. Glad that some many people were happy for her and uncomfortable with all the people around. She wasn't used to having that many people crowding her and making her feel claustrophobic in an open area, making her in desperate need for a little fresh air.

Knowing that all of these people thought it was awesome that she had beaten one of the toughest duelists in school gave her pride and once the crowd left, she felt even better. But this didn't last long at all. Soon enough, she was no longer alone. Two boys quickly came over to introduce themselves, one tall and one short.

"Hi," started the tall one with an excited tone. "I'm Brandon Wayne." This boy was quite gangly and had a cute baby face. His hair was a very light brown and his eyes were a pretty hazel color. Automatically, Kendra deducted that this one, Brandon, was an extremely optimistic person.

"And I'm Tyler Swallow," the shorter of the two added. Tyler was very tiny for a high school boy, maybe five foot four and not as cute as Brandon. His hair was a sandy brown and his eyes a soothing dark blue. Tyler's tone was a little less excited than his peppy friend to his right. Maybe he was just shy?

Both boys were wearing S Red uniforms. S Red was the least experienced dorm and mainly occupied by freshmen like herself.

"Hello, I'm Kendra Kaiser," she returned quickly with a grin.

"So, what dorm are you in," asked Brandon, seeming not to realize the relationship between the uniforms and the dorms. Before Kendra could answer herself, an other student did so for her.

"Well, blue jacket, blue shirt, blue shoes, she must be in O Blue," answered a boy's voice with a calm, humorous tone. Kendra giggled slightly from his remark and looked to her left and saw who the voice belonged to. He was a bit taller than Brandon and very handsome and well built. His dark brown eyes stood out brightly from the rest of his face which was nicely framed by dark brown hair.

_Wow, he's really hot._

"I'm sorry for bursting in like I did. I'm Matthew Folks, a..."

"A R Yellow student," Kendra finished smartly. Matthew nodded with a flawless slanted smile. Kendra noticed her knees start to shake at the sight of his smile.

"How can you tell?" asked Brandon. He obviously wasn't the brightest of the bunch.

"Well, yellow jacket, yellow shirt, yellow shoes, he must be in R Yellow," she answered with another smart remark.

_Wait, this Matthew must be the Matthew that tied with me on the basic test. Interesting..._She thought while she was staring dumbly at Matthew without noticing.

"Miss Kaiser, are you alright?" Matthew questioned with a concerned expression. Hearing his voice, Kendra snapped out of her little trance and shook her head.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. I was just staring off into space is all. And, please, call me Kendra." Smiling seemed to be contagious with these two. After a minute of endless smiles, Tyler and Brandon started to feel out of the loop as if Matt and Kendra were just laughing at an inside joke.

"Uh, we better leave you two geniuses alone, see you two later," Tyler said, barely audible and walked off with Brandon with a wave.

"It was nice to meet you, Kendra," Brandon called while disappearing through a door with Tyler.

Just before they were gone, she exclaimed, "Back at you," and started laughing to herself.

"Those two and I are also freshmen, we'll be seeing you around a lot," stated Matthew.

"I look forward to it," she replied, looking down at the ground, feeling embarrassed. Matthew sat down next her and bent down to look at her hidden face. Once she noticed him looking at her, she hesitated, but slowly turned her head to face his. He couldn't help but think she was extremely beautiful and began to feel embarrassed as well.

"May I walk you to your dorm, you know, if you want?" his face turning a violent red. Seeing his face, Kendra quickly recoiled her head back to the ground so he wouldn't see her blushing back.

"You're such the gentleman. I would appreciate it." She didn't hesitate and bite her lip. Both got up in unison and walked off together.

0000000000

Walking together and talking together was the most fun they had had in years. It was so easy to talk about anything to one another. They felt it was just so natural and comfortable talking to each other that they couldn't help but say whatever was just on their minds.

"Can I share something with you?" she asked, looking around for anyone that might be within hearing distance.

"Of course. I wouldn't be the gentleman you say I am if I said 'no' now would I?" he replied, also looking around imitating her. Again, Kendra giggled at his words.

"Well, after the duel between Chad and I, I went to congratulate him on a duel well played, but he just said, 'You'll pay for humiliating me in front of the whole school, trust me, you will,'" Kendra explained. "I mean, I know I shouldn't take him seriously, but something in the back of my mind is sort of scared."

"I have heard about him from others. He doesn't like to be humiliated, especially by a freshman. I would just stay out of his way from now on. Kendra, please don't worry that pretty face of yours," hearing him call her pretty made her knees almost give out, luckily Matt didn't notice. "Speaking of that, I never did congratulate you on kicking his ass back then. So congratulations."

"Thank you."

"But the only thing that concerned me was that you were up against a top student here instead of a trainer like the rest of us. I wonder why that was?" he continued, his tone sounded genially concerned.

_He actually cares._

"Me too," Kendra agreed. Once they came to the boundaries of the girls campus, both gave quiet sighs of sadness. They had both enjoyed the walk to much and now it was over. "Well, thank you for walking me here, Matthew."

"Your welcome, but you don't have to call me Matthew you know."

"Well, what should I call you then?"

"You can call me Matt, if you like that is."

"We'll see...Matt."

0000000000

The girls campus was more than Kendra had ever dreamed. A large, beautiful, three story building surrounded by a wide patio over a clear blue river abundant with wild fish. The inside was just as astounding. Wall painted a deep blue, floors glittering with every tile, sparkling glass chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. She was so enveloped in the gorgeous campus that she didn't notice the counter girl asking for her.

"I'm sorry. I need to find out where my room is."

"Alright, I just need your name," replied the counter girl. Kendra then gave her name and the girl looked up in surprise. "Hey, you're that girl who beat Chad, good for you!"

"Thank you."

"It's about time someone put him in his place," the girl snorted and gave Kendra a sweet smile and grabbing a key. "Room 723, on the second floor."

"Thank you so much."

As soon as she got to her new room, she fell in love with it. There were two great windows in her room: one in the bedroom and the main room. The view was miraculous. She could see the river and the nearby patch of woods near the campus including most of the school. The bedroom even had her luggage assorted on her bed and a phone on the night stand. In the main room was a small deck complete with a computer and printer then a comfy couch and television in the corner. This was heaven.

Before being able to get truly settled into her new room, there was a knock on the door, but it wasn't the door to the hallway. It was the door connecting her room to the room next door. When Kendra went to open it, a pretty girl with long, blonde hair and bright green eyes stood in the doorway.

"Hi there, I'm Alisa Marshall," she started, "I'll be your neighbor here."

"Oh, that's wonderful, I'm Kendra Kaiser," she replied.

"Wow, you're that girl that beat Chad, you must be very smart and talented." Alisa gaped at Kendra for a moment and, feeling a little awkward, Kendra looked down at the ground for a second.

"That's really kind of you to say, Alisa. That wasn't the first time I've heard that today."

"I would assume not," Alisa added, making her way inside Kendra's room. "I've heard that no freshman has ever beaten a leading senior here before. I had a hard enough time beating that trainer today, but you? That was just amazing what you were able to do."

"Um, thank you so much," she said, somewhat shocked that Alisa had made herself so comfortable in her room, but was happy that this girl was treating her so nicely.

"It's true though, remember that."

"Well, please make yourself comfortable. I've not quite finished unpacking yet, but I'd still love to talk to you."

"I'd love to talk. So, how do you like it here so far?"

"It's wonderful! I have the best room ever, I'm away from my parents for a while, and I've made some new friends..."

"Who have you met?"

"Oh, these three guys that I met about an hour ago, Brandon, Tyler, and Matthew. They seem really sweet, especially Matthew, I mean, Matt. He walked me here."

"Small world. I've known them for years. Matt is the other genius in the school. He's a sweet guy, really smart...I heard that you both scored the highest on the basic test. In my opinion, you two would be perfect for each other!" explained Alisa.

"What?!" Kendra exclaimed, Alisa just smiled. "I mean, he is really nice, and smart, and funny, and handsome..." Kendra found herself thinking about him and trailed off, then put herself together a second later. "But, I just met him. Do you really think we would be the 'perfect couple?'"

"Sure, I bet a lot of people would think that if they saw you together. You guys are two of a kind. You like him?"

"I'm not sure. It's a little too early to think about that."

"Whatever floats your boat, but all I have to say is that you never know," Alisa laughed.

"Well, anyway, let's digress from the topic of my love life, shall we? You didn't knock on my door just for the heck of it I assume?"

"Oh, yeah. I wanted to meet you and I wanted to warn you about Chad. I saw him say something to you after the duel. I don't know exactly what he said, but I have a pretty good idea."

"Matthew told me that he's not the person to mess around with, and don't do anything to ruin his image," Kendra thought about what she had said and realized that she did do something to ruin his image. She, a freshman, beat him, one of the best senior duelists.

"That's dead true, but he can be hastier than you think, trust me. My cousin, Daphne, graduated last year. She knew him pretty well and she constantly warned me about him. Also, you have done something to ruin him. Just watch your back."

"Um, thanks for the advise." Now, Kendra couldn't help but feel much more terrified, and even though she knew the answer, she asked, "Would you know anything about why I had to go against Chad instead of a trainer?"

"He probably wanted to duel with you because you were the only girl to get that far. I didn't do so well on the basic test, but you passed with flying colors. He either saw you as a threat, or thought you would be an easy target. Apparently the first one was true, the second one a completely bad decision to make. That's Mad Chad for you. Egotistical, psychotic, megalomaniac."

"Okay, I think I got it. I'll try not to piss him off anymore than he probably is already. Thanks, Alisa."


	3. The Letter of Deceit

The next few months went spectacularly. Kendra had the best teachers and the best friends. She got to know them all well, especially Matt, who she grew to like even more. To makes things even better, she had not seen Chad at all except in some classes, where they would never make contact with each other, and in the hallways, another place she ignored him. It would all change this next day.

That morning she woke up, got dressed, and went to Alisa's room. This was her daily routine. They would always go to breakfast together, eat together, leave together, go to their first class together, and leave that class, again, together. After that, Kendra would spend most of her time with Matt, who had the same schedule as Kendra. This day, however, was different. There was no change in her routine, it was just like a normal day. After first period, everyone had gotten word that Chad had left school early that morning on his family yacht. Apparently, his family was still very wealthy which didn't make much sense to Kendra. Whether he left because he was so embarrassed of Kendra beating him or of some unknown external force, nobody knew. Chad had two thugs, big, ugly, stupid, and thugish, that probably knew something about him leaving, but she wasn't going to ask. At least she was safe now that he was gone, right?

"Did you guys hear about Chad?" asked Tyler after dinner. The gang usually met after their dinner to converse about the day, whatever they had to say.

"Yes, we did. We heard about it after Dr. Prowler's class first period," Kendra answered for herself, Alisa, and Matt.

"Yeah, us too," Tyler and Brandon said at the same time.

"I wonder what's going to happen to him now that he's not in school any more?" Tyler added.

"Who saw him last?" questioned Alisa.

"I think it was Mr. Danner," Brandon answered.

"Did Chad say anything?" Kendra asked this time.

"No," Brandon replied while shaking his head.

"Oh well, wow it's getting dark. Wat time is it?" Alisa asked again.

"Let's see," Matt started while pulling up his sleeve to look at his watch. "That late already? It's 9:00, we better be getting back to our dorms now."

Alisa, Brandon, and Tyler started saying their goodbyes to each other while Matt and Kendra kept to themselves.

"Good night, Matt," Kendra stated.

"Back at you, Ken," he replied with his famous half smile.

0000000000

After a little while of walking to their dorm, Alisa looked around for nearby people and exploded into words.

"You are so into him!" she loudly whispered.

"I don't know what you're talking about," stated Kendra, although she had a good idea what Alisa meant.

"You know...Matt," Alisa whispered back, giving her a nudge in the arm.

"Matt? Oh no, no, no, no, no..."

"Come on, Ken. I know you much better than that. You totally like him," begged Alisa trying to get Kendra to spill. "Come on, you were staring at him thw whole entire time when we were with the guys!"

"Okay, okay. Have it your way. I really, really like him," Kendra finally confessed. Alisa smiled widely and gave a hug sqwealed in excitement.

"I knew it! Are you sure it isn't love?"

"Okay, that's pushing it a bit. I like him, a lot, alright?" Kendra exasperated, then started to calm down. Alisa just gave an unsure shrug as her smile disappeared. "I'm sorry, alright?"

"It's okay," the smile appearing back on her face.

"I've had this thing for him since the first time I saw his face. He's very handsome."

"That he is."

"Please, don't tell the others, or anyone for that matter. Especially not Matt!" Kendra shreeked, clenching onto her shoulders.

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. My lips are sealed," Alisa imitated zipping her lips and gave Kendra a hug. "I knew it, you know. I can see these things, I don't know..."

Alisa stoped once she notice Kendra had stopped dead in her tracks, staring off into the woods.

"Ken? Kendra?" Alisa started walking up to her friend who had not moved an inch. "What's the matter?"

"I thought I just saw...never mind, it was probably just a squirrel in the bushes or something," Kendra confirmed, still not quite convinced. Once she started walking again, Alisa kept talking on about anything. For a while, she was talking about the woods. She had ventured into the wood the other day with some friend and found a big oak tree smack dab in the middle of the woods. Kendra found this interesting, she had never gone into the woods before and she didn't plan to.

0000000000

The two of them soon got to their rooms, ready to go to bed. As soon as Kendra said 'good night' to Alisa and got to her room, she noticed something odd. There was a note taped outside her window. When she saw it, she quickly ambled to the window, opened the window to take it off, and read it.

_**Dear Kendra,**_

_**Please go into the middle of the forest at 10:00 pm tonight, by the big oak tree. Go about half a mile into the forest from the entrance by the girls campus. Please come, I need to talk to you about something important. I would appreciate it if you were not late. My dorm leader needs to have us in by 11 o'clock. And please don't tell anyone. I'll be waiting.**_

_**Sincerely, Matthew**_

She wondered why Matt needed her so urgently, but did not press the matter.

_I guess I'm going into the woods after all._

Kendra was able to leave her dorm without being caught by the dorm leader, Ms. Fontana and rushed out of the building and started walking to the woods. She passed the multiple benches by the pretty river and got past the first few trees. But after a while of walking through trees, she couldn't help but feel that this was very suspicious. For one, why didn't her just tell her earlier? Also, he called himself "Matthew." She called him "Matt" now. It didn't make too much sense. Maybe he's just out of it, not thinking clearly...

Getting deeper into the forest, Kendra sensed the feeling of being followed. No matter how many times she looked around and behind herself, no one was following her. She just couldn't shake off the feeling, no matter how much she tried. She thought she was going crazy, that she was paranoid. She wished she was just paranoid.

None of that mattered, for some reason, Matt needed her. The only guy that had every really listened to her, cared about her, didn't judge her like some other people did. He was just about the sweetest guy she had ever met and she really like him. The others were great too, Brandon, Tyler, and Alisa, but there was just something different about Matt. He was different.

"Matt?" she called out, nearing the center of the woods.

No response.

After a few minutes of walking and calling, Kendra finally reached the center of the forest at the big oak tree.

However, no Matt.

Thinking she might be early, she checked her watch to see. 10 o'clock. She was right on time.

Kendra waited for him for five more minutes, still no Matt.

Then she heard the sound of rustling leaves under somebody's feet came through the trees. And with the sound growing louder, so did the sound of her heart beating in her chest.

"Matt, there you are. I've been so worried, I..."

"I'm not Mato," called a cold voice that belonged to a shadowy figure merging out of the trees. Sure wasn't a squirrel either. It definitely wasn't Matt, instead of a pair of warm brown eyes appearing from the shadows, they were cold, heartless blue. "Miss me?"


	4. Current End of Terror

"Miss me?"

"Frankly, no," Kendra replied, slowly backing away from the figure.

"Aw, that really hurt, Kenny. And after all we've been through," Chad cooed, forcing her up against the big tree.

"I've told you before to never call me Kenny," she retorted. Pushed all the way to the tree with Chad inches from her.

"Old habits die hard, I guess," he commented, bringing one of his hands to her cheek. She quickly slapped it away and gave him a hateful glare.

"What do you want?"

"It's it obvious? I want to get back at you, not just for beating me...I know you know what I mean."

"You still aren't harboring over that, are you?"

"Of course I am!" he shouted in her face, then reverted to a sly smile. "Why do you make me yell at you."

"Because I don't like you and I had a part in ruining your life and you hate me?"

"Now, now. Hate is such a strong word," Chad added, grabbing hold of her arms and forcing them to her side so she couldn't slap him again. Kendra tried to jerk away from his grip, but his strength overpowered that of her own. Chad drew his face closer to her's, so close she could see each individual lash on his cold eyes.

"Get the hell away from me."

"Oh, I don't plan to," he whispered, then hurled his face to hers, trying to give her a kiss. Before he was able to get to her lips, Kendra kicked him hard in the shin and he toppled over and she ran off as fast as she possibly could. "Damn bitch!"

Kendra sprinted out of the area of the big tree for her life and tried to dodge ever tree in sight, but something caught her wrist and held on tight. Terrified by what it was, she tried to tug at her wrist, but it wouldn't let go. She then turned around and saw one of Chad's ugly thugs, desperately trying to pull her away. After endless yelling, tugging and kicking, the first thug was about to topple over, but the other one joined the first and grabbed hold of her other wrist. Their combined strength made it possible to drag her off in the direction of the big tree. Though she knew they were much stronger than her, Kendra couldn't help but make it hard for them. She knew what she should have done instead, but that would cause more trouble than there already was... On the struggle back, she accidentally sliced open her arm on a protruding branch as a result of her fight back. After a few minutes of dragging and pulling, the two were able to get Kendra back to the big tree and Chad.

"See what happens?" Chad started as he grabbed Kendra by the hair. "You aren't going to get away from me that easily. You just made this a whole lot harder on yourself."

"Let her go, Chad, now!" demanded a familiar voice coming from the trees.

"Who the hell...Who said that? Show yourself you damn coward!" Chad cried, circling his area as to see where the voice was coming from and pulling Kendra along with him. Just then, a figure steped out of the dense forest.

It was Matt.

"Let her go!" Matt shouted back.

"You and who's army?" Chad replied with a cliché. Matt slowly walked up to Chad who was still pulling hard on Kendra's hair. She seemed to be in so much pain that it hurt Matt just looking at her. He just had to get her out of this.

"Well, this one," then Matt socked Chad in the nose and went flying at the tree, luckly he was so shocked that he let go of Kendra's hair. Chad slapped hard on the tree and gave a screech of pain. He just slid down the tree and on the ground, then barely able move.

Once he saw Chad struggling to get up, Matt knelt down to Kendra who was laying on the ground, unconscious. It looked like she had hit her head on the ground, but it didn't look to bad, no blood. Matt slowly scooped her up, she went limp in his arms. Her face was dirty, tear streaks stained her cheeks. He called her name a few times, but she would not wake. After watching her for a few minutes, he saw Chad get up and wipe the blood off his nose. Matt carefully laid Kendra off to the side and went back to confront Chad.

As soon as Chad gained his composure, he balled up his fists and went full blast after Matt, who slyly grabbed Chad's shoulders and punched him right in the cheek. Chad collapsed onto the cold ground, out like a light.

"Who's next?" challenged Matt, full of confidence. The two thugs, who had been watching the whole show, stared at each other then started pushing each other towards Matt. After about a minute of them arguing, one of them got the courage to confront Matt, but merely tripped over Chad and stayed there.

Kendra felt so cold, but she didn't understand why. And why was her head so sore? Then her memories came back to her like a waterfall. Chad had tricked her into thinking he was Matt to get her to go into the woods, he tried to kiss her, when she tried to run away his thugs got a hold of her, he started tugging her by the hair when Matt showed up, after that she went into a fog. Then she could feel and hear everything around her. The cold ground she was laying on, the wet tears on her face, the sound of someone falling to the floor. She looked over and saw Matt on the ground next to her, his cheek red.

"Matt!" her voice echoed as she crawled to him as he got up to his knees. But the other guy was coming up to Matt to finish him off. Matt didn't notice him till the guy was just a foot away, he wouldn't have time to get up. He turned to get Kendra out of the way, but she wasn't at his side like she was a second ago. Instead, she was in front of the guy and kneed him in the groin. He didn't stand a chance. Once she saw Matt on the ground, staring up at her she knelt down and put a hand on his cheek, it was already swollen. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, don't worry about me. Are you okay?"

Before she could answer, Kendra noticed a hurt figure slowly coming towards them with something in his hands, a think piece of wood, swinging right towards them.

"Matt, look out!" she screamed. Kendra quickly turned around, swiftly kicking the wood out of Chad's hands, and smacked Chad with it instead. Definitely not his day. Chad automatically fell to the cold ground, and this time, did not get up.

"Let's go," Matt said monotonously, amazed by her strength and ability to knock Chad out cold. Kendra just nodded and followed him out the forest.

The walk out was dreadful. They were both silent, contemplating what they could say to one another, frequently glancing at each other for the slightest second. Awkward silence. She wondered how much he had saw or heard before. If he had overheard the conversation, if he saw Chad almost kiss her...she really hoped not. They did eventually get out for what seemed like forever in the woods. Once Kendra saw the bright moon in the star lit sky and their reflection caste on the clear river, she grabbed Matt's hand and led him to one of the benches by the water. She sat on one and faced the river while Matt stood at her side, unsure what to do.

"Are you sure you're alright?" asked her silent voice, still staring out at the river.

"Yeah, my cheek is just a little swollen," Matt answered and felt his cheek to check. "I'm just worried about you."

"I'm...o-okay. Today seemed just like...like an ordinary day, you know? Then just...one little difference can change everything. Thank you so much...for saving me. I-I-I don't know what would have happened if...if you weren't there." Kendra stammered over her words. Sensing her uncertainty, Matt sat next to her and faced her direction.

"Ken, don't worry about it. Because I was there, the things you're probably thinking about didn't happen. Besides, you were great back there. How you were able to shut Chad's lights out was amazing...Just don't worry, it was nothing."

"Nothing?" her face perked up and turned towards Matt showing fresh tears, shined by the moon light, streaming down her cheeks. "You call me finding a letter from Chad, allegedly from you, telling me to meet you in the forest, me actually falling for it, him trying to kiss me..."

"Whoa."

"Being attacked by his goons and then by him."

"Just a sec..."

"And you getting punched in the face? You call that nothing?'"

"Hold up, Kendra. You said Chad tried to kiss you?" the thought of that idiot actually trying to **kiss** her made him feel sick to his stomach, and he didn't know why. Why he cared so much. "Why did he try to kiss you."

"I don't know. Maybe he was just pretending..."

"People just don't pretend to kiss someone unless they were real creeps...Chad pretty much fits the bill doesn't he? But still, it's not right."

"Matt, why did you think it was nothing?"

"What?" Matt, who was totally off the original topic, concentrated back on Kendra.

"You know, what I was saying before. All that stuff that has just happened in the past thirty minutes."

"No, all that stuff you said were something. What I meant was that saving you was nothing, or...uh, helping you is more like it. You are very important to me," catching his mistake, Matt automatically corrected himself. "I mean you are a very good friend, one of the best I've had in a long time. I don't want anything happening to you. If something bad every happened to you again, I would do anything I could to keep you safe. You know I would," Matt couldn't help but stare into her eyes. They were so beautiful and captivating, he had never really noticed them before.

"I know, but I have a question. Would you really do anything for me? I mean, we've only known each other for a few months. Would you do something, like, jump off a cliff for me?" she commented with a humorous tone which made him laugh, which, in turn, pulled a smile on her face.

"Depends. If you just told me to, then there's no chance, so don't even think about it. I might."

"I'll try to keep that in mind. Another thing, how did you know I was out there?"

"Alisa called me," Matt confessed, not noticing his hand on hers. She didn't notice either. "She saw you heading into the forest and she saw the note in your room. She called me and told me you were in trouble. Obviously you were."

"It's a good thing she's observant," Kendra added, smiling and trying to wipe off the tears on her face.

"You know, she asked me the oddest thing while I was going to the woods," he stated and started attempting to wipe off her tears as well.

"And what was that?"

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30 minutes ago

"Matt, you aren't in the woods right now, are you?" Alisa asked, her voice strained.

"No, I'm in my room. Why, should I be in the woods right now?"

"No, it's not that you should be. It's just that I think Kendra's in trouble," her voice now sounded very distressed. These words caught his attention and suddenly became serious.

"Where is she?"

"I don't know, she just went into the woods for some reason and I found a note in her room that said it was from you. Matt, I'm so scared."

Matt didn't hesitate to but on regular clothes and bolt out the door. Going to the forest, they were still on the phone, him frantically asking when, why, where, and how questions while Alisa would ask his where exactly he was every other second. When Matt was just outside the woods, Alisa brought up the most off topic question.

"Do you like Kendra? And I mean as more than just friends."

000000000

"It's not important, I'm not even really sure why I brought it up."

"Oh..." she sounded so disappointed with his response.

"Sorry. But, just know that I'm glad you're okay, very glad."

Kendra didn't say anything but smile back. All of a sudden, both realized that Matt had his hand on her face. Her expression was unfathomable, unclear. Matt couldn't tell if she wanted him to take back his hand or leave it there, talk or not. Something else confused him, it was his heart. It was racing a mile a minute and he couldn't understand why, and it hurt. But, for some reason, he didn't want it to stop. Kendra, however, understood this. At this moment, she wanted nothing more for him to kiss her. It was painful for her just to see him frozen like a statue, so she made the first move. All of a sudden, Matt saw her face coming closer, just closer. He didn't know what to do, so he just followed suit. His hands dropped from her face to her arms as he pulled her closer. They were alone, that's just how they wanted it. It was painfully long, the time between the pre-kiss and the actual kiss, painful, but Kendra had been waiting for a guy that was her dream guy, and here he was. So close...

"Kendra..."

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"Do you like Kendra? And I mean as more than just friends."

"I-I'm...I'm not really sure..."

**This part was really hard for me, was the first time, even harder this time. Well, here's my fourth chapter, there are many more where this came from, trust me. Well, please stay tuned for the fifth chapter that's name I don't quite know yet. Yeah...Johnny Depp is still awesome. Just to let you know.**


	5. A Nightmare's End, A New One's Start

"Kendra…you're…you're bleeding!" he shrieked as he pulled his hand from her arm showing her it was covered in red blood, just before their lips touched.

"Oh my god, you're right. I am bleeding," Kendra explained in a slightly humorous tone. She felt her face go bright red. "I remember now, it was when those thugs were dragging me off. A branch or something cut me."

"Are you alright?" Matt asked in a whisper while pulling back from her face.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Uh, I'm sure Alisa's really worried, we should head back to our rooms." Her tone was melancholy and depressed as she got up and started walking away. But something grabbed hold of her hand, keeping her from walking off.

"Oh, no. I'm not letting you go back alone, not with creeps like Chad still out there," Matt insisted, coming to her side, still holding her hand.

"Okay, thank you. I don't think they will be attacking us again any time soon, though," she added, beaming up at him. "I'm not worried, I'm safe with you here."

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Matt and Kendra walked the short distance from the outside of the forest to the gates of the girls campus, holding hands the whole way. Once they were at the gate, both felt sinking feelings in their stomachs, neither wanted to leave the other. Both hesitated leaving once they got to the gates.

"Well, good night then. Make sure you patch that up," Matt finally said, addressing the cut on her arm.

"Yeah, I will. You should probably put that under some ice, you know, to suppress the swelling."

Neither wanted to leave, not now. Though they didn't talk, they didn't move, but just stood there next to each other, buying their time. To get another minute, a second, a word, something.

"It's getting late, I'm probably going to get a mouthful from Alisa. Um, I'll see you tomorrow," Kendra assured, then, unexpectedly, got up on her tip toes, and gave Matt a kiss on his swollen cheek. Surprised, when Kendra got back on her feet, Matt put his hand to the cheek she had kissed.

"I'll bite, what was that for?"

"It was thanks for saving me, and...maybe it will help?"

"I think it's working already."

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"Kendra, are you alright? I've been so worried about you!" Alisa asked frantically in dismay as Kendra walked into her room and ran right to her.

"Yes, I'm fine, I just have a really nasty cut on my arm..." Alisa quickly grabbed Kendra by the arm and carted her off to the bathroom.

"We really need to wash that off before anything. You know, we should have a sleepover tonight, we don't have school tomorrow. We can talk," all of a sudden, Alisa shreiked in excitement, "We can talk about Dan the Man, he's so cute...if you want that is, I do, or we can talk about _you know who_,and watch movies and play games and you have to tell me what happened," Alisa insisted, taking Kendra to the sink and helping her wash off her cut.

"Sounds like fun, Lis," agreed Kendra, then started her story, leaving out some of the details.

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The next day, everyone took notice to Matt and Kendra's newly made wounds and they all seemed to think that the two of them had something to do with each other's injuries. Both claimed they were plain accidents, but very few believed them and just went along with their story.

After a week of interrogation, Matt's swelling went down, Kendra's cut had healed, and everyone else became uninterested in them and more interested in the upcoming dance. Fliers were put up all over the school campus and in all the dorms. Alisa and Kendra had just noticed the fliers right after breakfast, heading out to go to first period.

Come One, Come All

To The

Years End Ball

Boys ask Girls

Formal Dance

This Friday, Dec. 15

7-9 pm

"Lis, are you going?"

"Of course, what about you?"

"I don't know..."

"What do you mean by that? I bet Matt is going to ask you and I know you wouldn't say no if he did."

"Well, what makes you think he's ask me? There are plenty of other, prettier girls here. I don't think he's ask me..."

"Are you kidding me?" asked Alisa, trying not to believe that Kendra had actually said that and pulled Kendra out the door to go to class. "He's crazy about you."

"I think you're laying it on a little thick..."

"Kendra, no I'm not. Have you seen yourself in the mirror lately? You're beautiful, but I know that's not the only reason why he likes you. Trust me."

"I do, it's just that I don't think he really likes me like that, but if you seem so confident about that, then I believe you."

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"You should ask Kendra to it, Matt," stated Brandon. He, Tyler, and Matt were walking around school aimlessly during break when they saw one of the fliers for the dance.

"What makes you say that?" Matt asked in return.

"Uh, you like her?" Tyler said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, but still shyly. "You know it, I know it, everyone knows it, even Brandon knows it."

"I'm not really sure what it is, I might have a thing for her, but..." wondering how exactly he felt, Matt remembered that night when Chad came back and Kendra told him that he had tried to kiss her. He had never been that angry before. And then when they were alone, he just wanted to kiss her so bad. "I guess I do like her more than I think I do."

"Oh really?" Brandon asked in wonderment. "I was just guessing that you had a crush on her."

"Brandon, really, I'm surprised, even for you. You couldn't tell that Matt's been hitting on Kendra since day one?"

"Okay, that's enough," Matt interrupted, getting in the middle of them. "She is really cute, don't you think?"

"Cutest I've ever seen," Tyler agreed.

"And she's smart."

"The smartest."

"And she's really sweet."

"Bet she tastes sweet, too."

Matt started at him, trying not to believe what Tyler had said. Brandon, however, didn't understand the joke. Then Matt started laughing a little after thinking about it.

"You never know," Matt added, Tyler laughing with him and Brandon still out of the loop.

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"Do you really want to ask her?" Alisa asked in excitement. Matt had found her alone during the beginning of lunch and took her to a secluded area to ask her personally about Kendra.

"Yeah, I like her."

"How did I know? Anyway, for Kendra's sake, I'll tell you a bit. She really likes tulips, know that. If you plan on asking her out formally, a flower would be a nice touch. Now, she likes the colors red and light blue. Light blue sort of matches her personality more because she's subtle, reserved, you know, they also match her blue eyes. Then red is like the opposite in some ways. When I think red, I think fiery and strong, but from what she's told me, she gets like that."

"What does this have to do with anything?"

"Don't ask."

"But I just did..."

"Want my help or not?"

"Sorry, please continue."

"Thank you, then there's more..."

A few minutes later, Alisa had told Matt all he should know about Kendra from hobbies, like watching movies, to favorite fruit, which was apple. He also learned some of the most irrelivant things about her such as the fact that she hated to be called Kenny.

"Try to be as subtle as possible, Matt. Don't just go up to her and ask her out, okay?"

"Yeah, I just hope I don't trip up and make her never want to go out with me again."

"That's the spirit, Matt," Alisa said with excitement as she patted his back in encouragement.

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After searching for a few minutes, Matt finally found Kendra near where they usually eat lunch on the other side of the courtyard, and walked over to her with a freshly picked tulip behind his back. Seeing her sitting alone, perfectly content, made flutter like hummingbird wings and could feel his face blushing. He then took a few more steps and saw some guy walk up to her and they started talking. Matt recognized him as Daniel Lane, otherwise known as Dan the Man. He was a senior and the most popular guy in school and, for some reason, he was talk to her. They seemed to be having a fun time during their conversation, and this made Matt's blood start to boil. A few more minutes in and they waved goodbye to each other, Kendra with the biggest smile he had ever seen on her face. Then, Kendra spotted Matt across the courtyard and ran over to him, beaming from ear to ear.

"Hey, Matt! You will never guess what just happened!" she had never been so excited.

"I doubt I would," he tried to make his voice sound enthusiastic, but failed miserably. Luckily Kendra was too happy to really notice.

"Dan just asked me to go to the dance with him!"

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**Probably saw that last part coming. Predictable, but that's life. With every unpredictable thing in live, there will be some predictable as well, I guess. Who is this Dan guy? Will he be the stud everyone thinks he is, or a jerk? Again, predictable, or is it? Maybe he's a really big jerk. So many possibilities. Please stay tuned to find out.**


	6. A New Threat

"That's really great…" Matt answered, not sounding convincing at all, but this time Kendra noticed.

"Oh, you sound trilled," Kendra retorted in an irritated voice. Hearing her tone made him snap out of his depression and into anger.

"Well, I was just thinking that maybe he's a little old for you…"

"Old?" she was becoming angrier by the second. "Just three years, that's not a whole lot."

"Three years can make a big difference. Plus, you don't know this guy! For all you know, he's only interested in…"

"Don't even bother!" she interrupted him mid-sentence, putting a hand in between them. "I thought you could at least be happy for me…"

"Well sorry to disappoint you, Kendra," Matt spat out her name as if it were the foulest thing to ever force it's way into his vocabulary. "But I thought that you, of all people, would have better judgment."

"I guess you thought wrong then, and so did I," Kendra gave him one more heart piercing glare and stormed off furiously. Matt quickly crumpled up the tulip and threw it into a nearby garbage can and he, too, stomped off in a rage in the opposite direction.

The rest of the day went horribly. Since Matt and Kendra had all of the same classes together, it was particularly hard to avoid one another. Also, since they had always walked out of class and gone to class together, everyone had grown accustomed to their routine, but when they broke their habit, everyone had noticed and rumors spread like wild fire.

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After the last period, Kendra was walking alone back to the girls campus, still in a haze from the argument. She just couldn't believe how unsupportive he was.

__

How can he possibly be so mean to me? I've never seen him like that…

"Hey, Kendra," started a male voice behind her and quickly came to her side. His name was Skylar, he was in some of her classes, but she barely knew him. "What happened between you and Matthew?"

"I'm sorry, but I don't think it's really any of your business," she replied, then started to walk faster, but he would just catch up to her.

"I know it's not, I just want you to know there are some rumors going around about you two and they aren't exactly good," Skylar added, then slowly walked off.

__

Oh no, just great.

Getting to her room, Alisa was already waiting for her outside her room.

"What happened today?"

"Lis, if you've heard any rumors, they are all untrue…"

"I sure hope so! From what I've heard, you and Matt were together, but he was a horrible kisser so you cheated on him with Dan. But that's the least I've heard, trust me, I've heard much worse about it."

"Oh, god," Kendra cried, clapping her hand over her face in embarrassment.

"Would you mind, telling me what really happened?"

"Well, Dan asked me out to the dance, which I still can't believe happened. I saw Matt and told him, but he didn't like it for some reason and we just started arguing, now we're just mad at each other, nothing more than that happened."

"Ah, I see. Ken, maybe he's just jealous," Alisa stated as they walked into her room, Kendra slamming the door behind them.

"He didn't have to be such a creep about it…"

"Just give it some time, he'll come around. But, maybe you sould understand his side..."

"Alisa, he really upset me," Kendra explained, walking into her bedroom and plopping down on her bed. "I just can't forgive him just like that."

"Kendra, we'll get this thing settled out, don't worry. Everything will be better in no time."

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"What the hell did you do to her?" Tyler asked in his still quiet tone. He and Brandon cornered Matt behind a building after school the next day, determined to force the truth out of him.

"We got in a fight, that's it. I know about the things people have been saying about us, they are all wrong about us. Curious how sick some people can be," frustrated and stressed out, Matt ran one if his hands through his hair and let out a big sigh. "I don't know what to do, and I'm sure Kendra is having as much fun as I am with these damn rumors. She and I will get better when we get better, till then, people are just going to have to put up with it whether they are smart enough to know the truth or not. These rumors probably won't last too long anyway..."

"Um, are you...alright?" Brandon cautiously asked who could somehow sense how Matt felt.

"Not really. I guess I'm what you'd call 'love sick.' I just need to get over it, I'm an idiot for thinking she would go with me," Matt lectured himself and smacked himself on the side of the head. "She chose him, I just have to face the facts...early bird gets the worm."

"Dude, I'm sure there's a good reason why she chose to go with him," Tyler started, attempting to think of a logical reason, and calling his bluff, Matt shot up his eyebrows as if asking him to go on. "Uh...maybe she's trying to make you jealous?"

"That's a good one, Ty. Maybe, I'm not meant to be with her, is all. It's no big deal..."

"Will you stop talking like it's the end of the world? She's one of the cutest girls in school and if anyone deserves her, it's you, not Dan. What did he do to deserve her? Nothing. So, stop being a downer and get some confidence already," Tyler snapped in Matt's face, startling him. Matt had never heard Tyler get so angry, this was definitely a change, what was his problem?

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A couple days went by, the rumors had died down noticeably, but Matt and Kendra still weren't talking to each other, still avoiding each other, still missing each other's company. Kendra was too upset with him to talk; Matt, too terrified to say a thing to her. The end of each period was unbearably lonely for both of them, leaving with out the other, walking alone in a mess of people in the hallways.

_Is this all worth it? Ignoring him has to be the hardest thing I've ever done, but he was being such a jerk...if only Dan hadn't brought that up, this wouldn't have happened._

The day went by so slow like a slug. Seeing him in every class, staring at the back of his dark head, him glancing back at her every once in a while. When he did, they're eyes would meet for the longest second, then recoil back to their original position. So painful.

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Matt hated this more than anything. When Kendra would look at him in class with that unfathomable face of hers, he could never tell exactly what it was she was thinking. Probably thinking of how much of a moron he was. He thought he deserved it, after the way he acted. At the end of that day, the bell had rang signaling the end of last period, he saw Kendra waiting by the doorway with that face of hers, as if waiting for him. A little spring of hope whaled inside of him, but then she turned her head and walked out the door alone. All for nothing.

Walking to his room alone, he decided that he didn't really know this guy either. He really didn't have any right to tell her not to go with him, This didn't make him like it any more though. The thought of Kendra going out with this senior she had just met was disturbing, but he had no say in what she did, even if he didn't like it.

Walking towards the campus, Matt came up to a small patch of trees and barely noticed a groups a guys laughing together in the shade. It was Dan and his posse. Curious, Matt slowly approached the trees and hid behind one just close enough to hear them with out being seen.

"Dan, dude, you are such a bastard!" laughed one of Dan's friends as he clapped his hand on one of Dan's shoulders.

"Yeah, I know, but it's totally worth it. Just think, not only will I be with the cutest girl in school, but the most popular. After that little episode with Chad, she became the biggest thing here. Being with her will put me on the top of the food chain! Dang bitch though, got in a fight with that loser, started a whole mess of rumors. Good thing I got that settled out. If I ever see that loser...whatever. Ya never know, maybe tomorrow after the dance..." jokingly, Dan acting by thrusting his pelvis, causing an explosion of laughter and wolf whistles out of the boys, all but one. Matt was not amused, not the slightest. He just wanted to go up to Dan and kill him, seriously murder him, for saying such a thing about her.

Now he knew what kind of guy Dan was. He was nothing about an arrogant, disgusting jerk who only wanted one thing out of Kendra. Hearing them laugh made Matt sick to his stomach, just hearing them laughing about Dan's plans for her. Now he had a reason to hate his guts.

"Hey, look guys, it's the loser eavesdropping on us!" Dan chuckled and pinned Matt up to the tree. All of his friends slowly snuck up behind Dan, still laughing with smug expressions. "What were you doing here behind this tree I wonder?"

"Uh...just hanging out for no reason. Not eavesdropping or anything," answered Matt stupidly as he stiffened his lower jaw. As a response, Dan pushed him up harder up against the tree making Matt squint.

"I'd like to believe that you damn liar. Now, why were you really here, hu? Is it about the girl, 'cause I bet that's what it is," Dan interrogated, still holding Matt to the tree. Matt had no response to give this swine.

"I take that as a yes. Now, was that so hard? Now, I don't really care what you, or Kendra, or anyone else thinks. I'm just here for me and I'll do what I want to do whether you like it or not," pushing him even harder with each phrase.

"What kind of person does this to another?" Matt whispered, barely able to talk with Dan't arm on his chest. "Don't you care? Kendra could really be traumatized by what you're doing."

"No, not really. You must be very concerned about her. Wait...don't tell me, you really love her, you would do anything to protect her," Dan cooed in a fake tone, forcing Matt up to the tree even more. "Well, sorry to burst you're bubble, but this time you failed. She's mine."

Matt winced from Dan's words. She wasn't Dan's, not if he could help it.

"Oh, and by the way. If you tell anyone about our little chat, I'll reassemble your face. And if you tell Kendra, then your face won't be the only one and I think you understand what I mean by that. For your safety, and hers, I advise you stay away from her," feeling satisfied, Dan quickly let go of Matt, and with a smirk, walked off with his posse, leaving Matt alone in the trees. As soon as they were out of sight, Matt ran away from the campus and flipped out his cell phone without hesitation to called Brandon.

"Hello?" asked Brandon's voice on the other line.

"It's Matt, Dan's just using Kendra."

"What do you mean?" Brandon said dumbly, then there were a few inaudible words and a wrestle over the phone.

"What happened, Matt?" Tyler started. Once Tyler and Brandon got the phone thing settled out, Matt began telling them of how he had over heard Dan and his friends talking about his plans for Kendra and the threat he made to Matt.

"I have to tell her, I just got to. She doesn't deserve to be left in the dark about this. I don't care if I get hurt, as long as she knows what he really thinks. I just don't want her to get hurt..."

"Do you forget?" Tyler asked as if saying something obvious. "He said that if he found out you told her, she'd get hurt as well. I highly doubt you want that."

"It's not going to happen, I'm not going to let her get hurt by him. I'm never going to let that happen to her," Matt put all of his heart into his words, both Tyler and Brandon could sense the seriousness in his voice.

"Matt, are you alright?" Brandon's tone sounded really unsure and hesitant, trying to understand how Matt was feeling.

"No, I'm not. Kendra's in trouble and whatever I do, she's going to get hurt someway or another. But, I just have to tell her. She has to know that this guy is only interested in...that he's no good for her..."

"Well, you better tell her soon," added Tyler, his voice concerned ans worried for what might happen to his friends. "The dance it tomorrow night."

**Duh duh duh...drama, not really. I hope you all read on. And just to warn you, everything for all of them is going to change soon enough. Please tell me what I should fix, improve, anything of the sort. Please and thank you for reading!!**


	7. Truths to Dare

Once Matt had gotten off the phone with Brandon and Tyler, he automatically called Alisa and walked in the direction of the girls campus.

"Matt, what the matter?" Alisa asked, realizing something was wrong once she saw the caller ID.

"Ken's in trouble. Dan's just taking advantage of her to...Alisa, where's Kendra?"

"Um, I don't know, I think she's coming back soon though. Matt, what happened?"

Getting annoyed with everyone asking him, Matt gave a quick summary of what Dan had said. He wasn't interested in telling everyone the story, only one person. For a while after he had finally gotten to the end, Alisa didn't speak for minutes at a time, trying to understand what he had just said.

"It that all true?"

"Of course it is! Why the hell would I lie about something like this?"

"I know you wouldn't, but how are you going to tell her? She won't talk to you..."

"I'll make her listen! I'm not going to let him do whatever the hell he wants with her! I'm not going to let that happen."

"Matt, you really need to talk to her, not just about this Dan thing. Um, you two need to work some things out...like maybe the fact that you really like her and that you're just looking out for her..." Alisa's voice trailed off, trying to reach a point.

"Forget it, I'm not going to tell her that I like her. Besides, there's no point, she doesn't like me..." bringing up the subject bothered Matt. He never really noticed just how much he thought about and liked Kendra till now. This was depressing...

"What if I told you she did?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Kendra wouldn't want me saying this...but I'll tell you. She's been crushing on you for a while now, thought you should know," Alisa confessed. Matt didn't respond for several seconds and Alisa wondered whether he was speechless or just so angry he decided not to speak.

"Is this a joke?" he finally asked, his tone somewhat humorous. "Are you just trying to get me to confess my undying love for her or something? Or are you trying to convince me that she said yes to Dan just to make me jealous?"

"Well, I wouldn't say no about that last part. She actually is trying to make you mad. Even though she doesn't say it, I know she's trying to make you jealous. I have to say though, I think it worked..."

"Okay, I am jealous, but I'm not going to confess my love to her."

"So you admit it," Alisa started shyly, bringing up another point.

"I didn't admit anything..."

"You didn't not admit anything."

"What are you getting at?" Matt asked with an attitude.

"You said that you weren't going to admit that you love her, but by saying that, you just admitted it to me."

"I admitted no such thing."

"Just because you didn't say it, doesn't mean you don't mean it..."

"Okay, please let us digress from the subject. I'm going to wait for her by your guys' campus. I just really have to talk to her."

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Matt waited near the entrance of the girls campus right after getting off the phone with Alisa, and even though the conversation was over, he couldn't help but think about what she had said about him and Kendra.

**Just because you didn't say it, doesn't mean you don't mean it.**

Those words rung in his head over and over again. How did he really feel about her? He knew he liked her, just never really stopped to think how much. Sure, he cared about her, maybe more than a person who was just a friend should. Maybe there was more as Alisa had implied. Matt had been so worried about her lately that he never gave thought as to their relationship. Maybe there was more than he had orginally thought.

He could see her perfectly in his head. Her shiny redish brown hair, those big dark blue eyes, the way her nose wrinkled when she giggled, the way her lips moved when she smiled. Oh god, he knew he had fallen for her, hard, but hopefully Kendra would be there to catch him before he got hurt.

Off in the distance, Matt saw her, quickly walking towards the campus. His heart started to leap in his chest and his breath strained. Matt couldn't see her well, but all he could tell was that she did not look happy the slightest.

They were twenty feet away from each other when Kendra noticed Matt just standing off to the side, staring at her. She just rolled her eyes in annoyance and walked even faster along, but Matt grabbed hold of her arm and pulled her around.

"Ken, I need to talk to you..."

"I don't care, I already know it's going to be something about Dan," she cried and tried jerking away from his grip, but was once again pulled by Matt. Before she knew it, Kendra and Matt were right up against each other, staring in each other's eyes, then Kendra quickly pulled away and was able to get away from Matt's loosened grasp.

"I-I know it is," Matt stammered, shocked by their episode. "But there's something you don't know about him, Ken. He's just taking advantage of you, he doesn't care about you!"

"Matt, I don't care. You're just jealous that he asked me out so now you're imagining up fairy tales about things he never said!"

"No it's not, Kendra! I am not making this..."

"You know, if you didn't want this to happen, you should have asked me out in the first place!" she yelled at him as she stormed off.

"Well I'll log that away for next time!" Matt screamed back at her, stomping away in the other direction. Then, a few seconds after their episode, Matt's phone rang. He took it out, it was Alisa. "What?" he answered with frustration.

"That didn't go well. I could see through my window."

"She can be so thick headed, I swear. Can't see the truth in front of her face."

"Matt, don't say that! You know that's not the truth, just calm down," Alisa soothed in a slow manner.

"I know," admitted Matt with a sigh, but still furious. "But you know she can be stubborn."

"True she can, but you can't put that against her. Wait," Alisa stated as she heard the door of the room next to her slam shut, Kendra's door. "Kendra just got back. I'll talk to you later."

Once Alisa got off the phone with Matt, she slowly walked up to the door connecting the two rooms and knocked hesitantly. What a mess this had all become she thought. These two were just hurting themselves with all of this worry and frustration.

"Come in, Alisa," Kendra's voice called, quiet and wary. Walking in, Alisa first found her friend on the couch, her face looking out the window. Worried, Alisa slowly approached Kendra and sat next to her.

"I don't understand why he's acting like this. Matt's been acting like such a jerk lately, but it's gone a little too far now," Kendra stated in a melancholy tone then turned her head to face Alisa. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying. "I feel like my life is falling apart."

"Ken," Alisa soothed, taking hold of Kendra and hugging her. "Your life is not falling apart. This is just a little snag at the moment, things will get better. How about we watch a movie or something, you know, get your mind off things."

0000000000

"Damnit I'm a jerk," Matt yelled at himself in a whisper as he threw himself at his bed and started at the ceiling. "I can't believe I said that stuff to her. She's never going to forgive me for this."

**That's the end of chapter 7. What's going to happen next? Well, I know, but you don't. Ha ha ha. Well, you will know...I don't really know where I'm going with this... Read on por favor! I know these are short chapters, but there will be a whole lot of them, trust me. They will probably be longer later on though...yeah. Johnny Depp is awesome! ****You guys don't have to be shy, you can make reviews if you want. Sorry I didn't say that earlier.**


	8. Back Together, In Trouble Again

**Heads up, if you do not like kissing and lovie dovie stuff, this is not the chapter for you, neither is the next one. After that, there will be pretty much no physical contact between them, not until much later at least. Just a friendly warning.**

**Please read and review!!**

The next day, Friday, went by tediously slow. Everyone seemed all agog about the dance except for two.

Matt and Kendra lamented the day's end and, soon enough, the dance. He would have to bare watching the girl he liked dance with some guy that was just taking advantage of her; she, with Matt watching her with another guy.

Alisa and Kendra ran to their rooms together right after their last classes to prepare while the guys were perfectly okay with taking their time.

"Why do girls need hours to get ready for something as superficial as a school dance," pondered Brandon as he, Tyler, and Matt ambled on in no apparent direction or to any specific location. "It's not like anyone's going to be able to see them really well because it's so dark and all."

"Who knows, that's just the way girls think I guess. Always need to look their best for everything. I don't really think that guys are suppose to understand what goes on in the girl mind, it's too complicated. What do you think, Matt," asked Tyler after his wordy explanation. Matt didn't seem to be too interested in their conversation, he just kept staring down at the ground, obviously upset.

"Oh, yeah, girls, weird," Matt ran through, still not interested. Taking notice of Matt's monotonous tone, Tyler intervened.

"You didn't tell her, did you?"

"I tried!" Matt snapped, taking Tyler and Brandon by surprise. "But she wouldn't listen to me! She is so content on believing against me that she's driving me insane, I can't take it!" Matt's exclamation shocked both his friends, and seeing this, Matt apologized. "Look guys, I'm really sorry for lashing out at you. I didn't mean it...

"It's okay, Matt," Brandon assured, patting Matt on the shoulder.

"Yeah, it's alright," Tyler added shyly and they kept walking on.

"She really is driving me crazy, though."

* * *

Hours past and it was finally time for the dance. They guys all dressed in their best suits and met at the dance, music blaring and lights flashing. Matt found Brandon and Tyler together by the edge of the dance floor.

"You know," Brandon started, tugging slightly at his jacket. "I kind of like wearing this suit."

Tyler stared at him with an odd face and responded, "You aren't going to wear it all the time now, are you?"

"Well, maybe I should?" Brandon replied with a smug look.

"Please don't," Tyler smartly answered just as Matt walked over to them.

"Hey, guys," Matt greeted, a little cheery than just earlier that day.

"Feeling better?"

"Yeah, I guess. I just have to get over it, you know?"

"I'm sure you will," Tyler assured, looking into the crowd, but Matt wasn't looking at the crowd. His view was directed towards the entrance and it was obvious why that was. Alisa had just entered through the door with her date and close behind her was Dan with his date at his arm, Kendra. She had never looked more stunning. Wearing a sleek strapless red dress and matching heels. Her usual wavy hair had been straightened smooth and fluffed around her face and a little past her shoulders. Kendra was the most beautiful thing Matt had ever seen in his life.

"Wow," Brandon stated in shock as he saw Kendra slowly walk across the floor with Dan at her side.

"You said it," Tyler agreed, watching her as well.

"She's gorgeous," whispered Matt, barely audible, watching her every move as she glided flawlessly around. Dan walked Kendra over to the opposite side of the room and left her there to go to another part of the room. All she did was stand there, innocently, waiting for her date, scanning the whole crowd, and for a split second, met Matt's eyes. The second seemed to last an eternity and a day and all they could see was each other, the crowd had disappeared in their gaze.

_Oh my gosh, he's so handsome, but I'm still furious with him!...right?_

After that one long second, Kendra had broken her trance and automatically dropped her eyes to the ground, examining her feet. After a few minutes of waiting, Dan had still not come back to Kendra, so she took that matter into her own hands and left in the direction he went. Seeing this, Matt followed her and shortened his distance from her so they were just a few feet apart. She was unable to notice him right on her heels. After a while of pushing and shoving through the crowd, she stopped suddenly a little bit from the beverage table, and Matt, too, stopped a few paces behind her. She stood unmoved, staring off at something a bit infront of her, and Matt figured what it was, Dan.

"So, what is it you're doing with that chick?" asked one of Dan's friends, taking a sip from his cup. They were all talking loud as to hear eachother talk, fortunately, Matt and Ken could hear them as well.

"Well, being with her will make me more popular, that's obvious. She's the biggest thing in school since she beat Chad. I've been planning on kissing her tonight, no doubt about out relationship after that. I'll probably get bored of her after a while, though. Whatever, it'll all be worth it," Dan replied with a smirk on his face, not realizing the person he was talking about right behind him. Having heard enough, Kendra lightly tapped him on the shoulder, scaring him half to death once he saw who was the culprit. "Oh, Kendra! I was just about to..." before Dan was able to finish his sentence, Kendra smacked him right across the face making him fall on the ground with a loud thud.

"Geez," Matt whispered, now aware of how strong she really was when mad. "Don't make her mad."

"Don't bother!" she screamed at him, forcing back the tears and attracting the attention of a huge crowd. "I have met so many jerks in my life, but you take the cake!" once she finished, Kendra ran off outside with Matt trying to catch up with her.

Finally able to get out of the building, Matt scanned the ground to see where she had ran to, and found her. She was on the ground on her knees at a bench with her arms over her face, crying. Feeling he should talk to her, Matt sat at the bench next to her and stroked her hair.

"Matt, I'm so sorry. I really should have listened to you. I'm so think headed," her words muffled in her tears.

"Ken, you shouldn't be so mad at yourself. It's not like you asked for this to happen. And, I'm the one that should be sorry for yelling at you yesterday and the other day..."

"Oh, you don't have to go on, I'm just glad that I know the truth," she stated, trying to avoid them apologizing to each other endlessly.

"Ken, the whole time we weren't talking to each other, I know this is a little weird, but it tormented me all week. Seeing you, not talking to you, and seeing you with that bastard, it was really hard for me," Matt confessed as Kendra sat up on the bench with him, taking hold of his hand. "And to tell you the truth, I'm sure Alisa's said this, I was extremely jealous. I know that sounds really silly, but I was. It made me so angry, I kinda lost it."

Realizing what Matt was saying made Kendra give a shy smile and turned her head away from him, letting her hair fall down her face. Matt slowly lowered his head to look at her hidden face and moved the hair to behind her ear.

"Don't hide your smile, it's beautiful," grinning back at her.

"I got so pissed off when we had those fights, I don't know if I had ever been so mad in my life. I'm just glad that we're actually talking again instead of screaming at each other," she added, tears still trickling down her cheeks. Compelled, Matt brought his hand to her face and wiped off her tears.

_Wait, does he know how I feel? In a way, he told me he likes me. He has to know, it's pretty obvious._

"You don't have to cry, you know," Matt commented as he dropped his hand to her bare shoulder. She was shivering like mad as to be expected in the middle of the night in December.

"But I want to because I'm pissed off at myself!" she replied through chattering teeth, quickly wiping off the remainder of the tears from her face, and as Matt pulled off his jacket and wrapped it around her. "Thank you."

_I guess he does, but I can't be too sure..._

"You need it more than I do."

"Such the gentleman, as always," she whispered, now smiling faintly.

"So I've been told."

"You are such an enigma to me, Matt. How can you forgive me just like that when I've been a complete fool and a jerk to you?"

"Because, I figure you didn't mean it, and I wasn't exactly treating you the best either," Matt answered, smiling back and looking at her calming face. Feeling his eyes on her, Kendra turned her head to see him so close to her, but it didn't feel weird. No, it felt...right. "Plus, I also figure that you've been through enough and for me to still be a jerk to you would just be cruel."

"Well, thank you," she sighed out as she leaned her head against his shoulder and Matt, unsure what to do, pulled his left hand over to her far shoulder. Kendra had never felt to right after such a time of distress. And though they had been screaming their heads off at each other for the past week, they were able to be so calm and open...and close. Feeling confident, Kendra tightened the jacket around and snuggled up to him, her head at his neck.

_What am I doing? He's not going to like this..._

But, oppose to what she had though, Matt took this as an invitation as to squeeze her even closer to him. Feeling her face turn hot pink, Kendra just had to know what he thought.

"You don't think this is awkward, do you?" Kendra asked as she turned her face to look up at his. Though she couldn't see him very well in the dark, she could still feel the intense heat coming off of his face.

"Um, I think it would have been earlier. Not so much now though."

"So, is that a yes?" she questioned back shyly.

Matt gave a small chuckle and craned his neck so he could look down at her. "I'll just have to get used to it, I guess."

"Hmm, yeah, I..." before being able to finish her sentence, Matt free hand founds it's way to her cheek and down her jaw line. "Suppose."

"Is this awkward?" his voice barely a whisper. Speechless, Kendra just shook her head, her heart beating a mile a minute. Then, his hand left her face and slowly fell down to her neck and gently pulled her closer to him. Kendra's breath quickly started to stagger as their faces continued to move closer and closer to each other. "What about this?"

This time, Kendra did not respond, but just went along with Matt's actions.

_What am I doing? I probably shouldn't let him kiss me, but I really want him to. Oh, what the hell._

Making up her mind, Kendra fluttered her eyes shut, allowing Matt to pull her closer. But just before their lips could touch, Matt hesitated, thinking whether he really should go for it or not. If he did kiss her, they could never really go back to the friendship they had before. If it didn't work out, their friendship could become strained, or they could just shun each other from their lives entirely. On the other hand, something even better could come out of this, plus, he just really wanted to kiss her, so he did. Matt brought her face the last inch, kissed her gently, and pulled away slightly, leaving his hand at her neck then slowly moved it down to her bare shoulder under his jacket. Touching her skin, Matt couldn't help but notice just how smooth her skin was, like silk.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, staring down at the ground. "That was way out of line."

"What if I don't think it was?" Kendra commented, Matt's face automatically jolted up and looked at her in confusion.

"What do you mean?" confusion showing in his face and voice.

"I mean," she started with a giggle, kissing him back. "I didn't want you to stop."

"Really?" Matt's voice cracked as he pushed himself away, not sounding to happy about what she had just said.

"Was that a bit much?" Kendra asked, biting her lower lip in embarrassment.

"I just can't believe that came out of your mouth. You're such a cute girl, you know, quiet, shy. When you said that, you were like a totally different person. It was just kinda weird, I don't know how else to say it, but what came over you?" Matt said as he took her hands and bounced them up and down in his, obviously nervous and scared. Matt had never been with a girl before, this was totally new to him. Sure, he had had crushes before, but never had they gone this far.

_Is he actually...afraid? He seems so nervous, then again, so am I._

"You, you're what's come over me. Of course," she started, her tone became melancholy as she started down at their hands, back to her shy tone. "If you don't want me, er-us together, you can just say. I don't want to push this on you, not at all. If you don't want this kind of thing going on in your life right now, I can handle it, I just want to know what..."

Matt quickly leaned into her face and kissed her harder than before on the lips. Kendra didn't bother stopping him.

_I've never been so happy. My first and second kiss with a guy I actually like. I'm never going to be able to let this one go._

After a little bit, Kendra pulled herself away slowly and looked up at Matt's face. He was so handsome, so mature for his age, but he was so young. Soon enough, he would be fifteen, but he didn't nearly act his age. Why was that she thought, then concentrated back on his face that was looking at her curiously.

"Was that a good enough answer for you?" he asked, giving her that crooked smile she loved to death.

"It was...perfect," Kendra hesitated, trying to find the right word. "You know? I didn't think you'd be such a good kisser."

"I'm not sure whether I should thank you or be offended."

"Don't worry about that," Kendra started as she snuggled back up against him. "I meant it as a compliment."

"Then thank you."

"Matt, have a question, but...I'm not sure if," she started again, trying to find the right words. "It would be too personal or not, for you that is. If you would be comfortable with me asking."

"Shoot."

"Was this your...um," Kendra hesitated again, stumbling over her words.

"My first kiss," Matt answered back, not answering in a question. He was absolutely sure that was her question. Ashamed, Kendra quickly nodded her head and turned it away from his. "Yeah, it was." Noticing her unresponsive silence, Matt craned his neck to look at her face. "Is that a problem? So what if I've never kissed a girl before?"

"I'm not saying it's a bad thing! I'm honored to be the first person you've ever kissed," her tone steadily increasing in volume, then quickly lowered to a whisper. "It just feels weird to me."

"Ken, it's not like you took my virginity or anything like that. You shouldn't get so worked up about it. I'm happy, I'm happier than I've been in...let's just say a long time and you should be happy too, at least I hope you are."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about that," Kendra replied, slightly patting him on the cheek, beaming a huge smile up at him. Back to normal, as if them kissing was a normal thing, a daily routine.

Kendra gently leaned up against Matt, her cheek against his chest, listening to his rapidly beating heart and grabbed his right hand to hold in hers. In response, Matt lightly placed his chin on the up most top of her head, taking a slight whiff of her red hair. Citric, he loved citric fruits.

They stayed there, perfectly content with each other, in silence on the bench, her in his arms. Everything else but them had disappeared; the wind, the cold, the distant sound of the blaring music coming from the dance, all was gone. It was as if they were in their own little world, population: them.

"Matt," Kendra asked after a few minutes of complete silence. "Do you know what time it is?"

"8:30."

"Thanks," she thanked smiling, then her smile turned to a frown. That didn't sound like Matt... Then she felt a terrible jerking pain in her throat and, hardly able to breathe, screeched, but no sound would come out of her mouth, as pulled up into a standing position, one arm wrapped around her body, the other hand tightly cupped over her mouth. Matt quickly got ambushed by two burly guys and forced back, struggling to get away from their grip.

"How could you do that to me, sweetie?"

**I know, it's pretty corny, but hey. If you guys are just interested in the dueling, just to warn you, the last one is in the next chapter. After that, there aren't going to be any. This chapter got a little mushy, I know, sorry to those of you who don't like that sort of thing. To those of you who do, well that's just great for you. Please read on when I have more chapters, well, duh. It would be a little hard to keep reading if there aren't any more chapters. Any who...please read and, if you want, review. Don't be shy, I don't bite. Also, this chapter was kinda long, it you don't like that, please tell me because later on, the chapters are going to get a lot longer. Please tell me these things.**


	9. Redefining Together

**Hello my lovies, here's the next chapter of my story. I hope you all aren't disappointed in me, 'cause I don't want you to be. Please tell me if there are any big mistakes are if you think I need to look back on something or anything of the sort. Don't keep me in the dark about these things! Thank you all so much for being so patient with me; that last chapter took me a while, I know. Does Kendra seem to get into a lot of trouble to you, or is it just me? Please read on and don't be shy about the reviewing, I don't bite, I can assure you that. Thank you for your dedication and patience! Also, if you don't like kissing and that sort of stuff, this isn't the chapter for you, neither was the last chapter.**

**Please read and review!! I'm somewhat desperate!**

"How could you do that to me, sweetie?" Dan asked sweetly into her ear, making her skin crawl. Matt hated seeing her in so much distress, it was killing him not being able to help her.

"Leave her the hell alone," Matt snapped, trying to pull himself away from the two guys while giving him death stares.

"I don't think I will," Dan answered and brought his mouth to her ear again. "Don't try anything stupid or you're boyfriend's going to be unrecognizable when I'm done with him," he added by whispering to her and kissed her cheek causing Matt to flinch in anger.

"Hmph!" Kendra protested as best as she could, her cries barely heard through Dan's hand. She wanted nothing more than to smash Dan's face in; she had the perfect opportunity. He's face was right there, one smack in the nose aimed just right could brake it, but she wouldn't dare risk it, not when Matt's safety was on the line...

"Just let her go, she didn't ask for this," Matt pleaded as he cautiously stared at Kendra in the arms of this jerk.

"What makes you say that? Maybe she did deserve it."

"I don't care. Just don't hurt her. I told her about what you had said earlier, so aren't I the one in trouble here, not her? Just hurt me twice as hard then," Matt started barganing, paying no attention to Kendra flailing in Dan's arms and trying her hardest to yell at him.

_Why is he doing this to himself? He doesn't know Dan... Please don't do this, Matt..._

"Here, I'll make you a deal. You beat me in a duel, and I'll let you both go unscathed, but if you lose, you'll get all of it. Also, if you choose not to go against me, you're both getting it. Are you willing to," Dan stated, caressing Kendra's cheek with he thumb, making Matt's blood boil. "Take that chance?"

"Yes," Matt didn't hesitate, then in the most malice tone. "I'm going to kick your ass."

"We'll see about that," commented Dan, smirking, as he through Kendra hard against the ground and started walking off. The two goons cautiously released Matt and, too, walked in the same direction leaving Matt the Kendra behind.

"Ken, are you alright?" Matt asked as he held out his hand to help her up, his tone unchanged.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Kendra exclaimed at him as she got up and pushed him back by the chest.

"I don't think you answered my question..."

"I don't care about your question, Matt. I'm just fine. I can't believe you got yourself into this!"

"I don't want you to get hurt, that's why I'm doing this. Why, do you want to get hurt?"

"I think it's better than you getting all of it!" Kendra's voice was steadily rising in volume as she continuously hit him on the chest. "You can get yourself killed. I'm not going to let you do this to yourself."

"Kendra!" he yelled in her face, grabbing hold of her wrists. "There isn't much you can do to stop me so you might as well quit complaining."

Giving him a quick death glare, Kendra relaxed her arms and stared down at the ground angrily, biting her lower lip.

"That's much better," Matt said as he pulled her off in the direction Dan was headed off to.

"What are you doing?"

"To beat Dan's ass to the ground, where else?" Matt asked, his tone was still angry.

"Why don't we just get out over here?" Kendra whispered through her clenched teeth, getting angrier by the second.

_Why isn't he making any sense? We can just run away and we wouldn't get hurt, he would be okay..._

"I know what you're thinking, we can't just run away. He'd come after us, then we'd be in even bigger trouble. I can't just back down now."

Feeling defeated, Kendra shut her open mouth and quickly cocked her head forward, trying desperately not to be mad at him. Though, she still couldn't help that there could have been a better way to get out of this; if she had never consented to Dan in the first place. She saw this coming once Dan had asked her and she knew he wasn't looking for a relationship with her, there was much more to it...

"Are you still mad?" Matt asked out of the blue a few minutes later. Dan had walked to a completely cleared area, perfect for dueling, and the others were just catching up to him.

"Yeah, but not at you," Kendra replied as she grabbed hold of his hand, squeezing it tight. Still in his angry state of mind, Matt took little notice to her gesture, and just smiled slightly back as he walked on.

"You ready for this, dork?" Dan challenged, now waiting for Matt at one side of the open field, getting ready to start the battle.

"Ken," Matt started as he took both her hands in his. "Please refrain yourself from doing anything to get them angry, just stay safe."

"I'll try my best," responded Kendra with a slightly sarcastic tone, pulling his face down to hers, and giving him a sudden hard kiss. He, having snapped out of his mood, instinctively moved his hands down to her hips and around her, her sweet lips under his, gradually pulling her in closer to his body...closer...

"Come on! I don't want to see you two making-out all night," Dan yelled at them madly as soon as he noticed them embracing each other. "Just cut it out so we can finish this thing."

"Good luck, Matt," Kendra smiled up at him, trying her best to hide her fear from her face. As the two conversed, Dan subtly called over his two goons.

"Make sure the girl doesn't get in the way, you understand?" the two guys simply nodded and walked off out of sight, leaving Dan and Matt, alone together.

"Okay," Matt directed to Dan, slowly walking away from Kendra and closer to Dan, giving him the worst and deadliest of stares. "Let's get this over with."

* * *

After fifteen tedious minutes, Matt had finally won the duel.

"Okay, I won Dan. Now let us leave," Matt commanded as he stared into Dan's face.

Looking beyond Matt, Dan gave an unfriendly smirk, which didn't make Matt feel to comfortable, "'Us?' I don't see an 'us,' I only see a 'you.'"

Realizing what Dan meant by that, Matt frantically searched behind him, scanning every where in the area; Kendra was no where to be found, and neither were the goons..

"Dan, where is she?" Matt's voice trembled in a mix of fear and extreme anger.

"You know what? I don't know, but it's quite the coincidence. My friends are missing too," Dan joked, still giving an evil grin.

"Yeah, coincidence my ass," Matt retorted back as he ran off to find Kendra. A few minutes after running in one direction, Matt noticed something on the ground off in the distance. Coming closer to it, Matt realized it was his jacket, the one he gave to Kendra to wear. Picking the jacket up, Matt also saw and retrieved two red high heeled shoes not too far off.

"Kendra!" Matt screamed time after time as he raced down the path in the direction of the shoes. Listening carefully after several minutes of searching, Matt could hear the faint noise of someone calling back. Desperate to find her, Matt kept yelling Kendra's name and followed the anonymous voice responding. Closer and closer he came to the voice and louder and louder did his heart beat in his chest. 'She's calling me,' he thought. 'She needs me,' and she did. Matt found her sitting on the ground, huddled over her left ankle with the two goons out cold near her.

"Matt," Kendra called calmly as she massaged her ankle. Matt ran up to her and hesitated for a second, looking over her, knelt down in front over her, and held her tight to his body.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered, making his tone sound as steady as possible.

"It wasn't your fault," she comforted, rubbing his back.

"What happened?" Matt then asked as he pulled her away and placed the jacket back over her quivering shoulders.

"When you were dueling with Dan, these two abducted me and started carting me off out here. They pulled off your jacket and I started running and throwing my shoes at them, which didn't work too well. They caught up with me, I think the rest is obvious. I beat them up, but I think I broke my ankle, it hurts pretty bad," Kendra replied, still applying pressure to area around her injury. Though Matt couldn't see any bone protruding from her ankle, it was covered in a shiny, think liquid, which he recognized as blood. Now, Matt was no doctor, but he knew that couldn't be too good.

"Ken, I'm taking you to the doctor," Matt began lifting her off the ground and into his arms like a bride being carried onto the thresh hold, but stopped him from going off.

_Wow, he sure is strong..._

"Matt, it's okay, I can walk. It's probably not even broken," she said as she attempted to lift herself out of his arms ever so slowly and touched down on the ground with her good foot, just slightly letting her bad one brush the ground, and holding onto his arm for support. "See?"

He was not at all convinced, but thought that he should at lease give her a shot, "Let's see about that."

Kendra hesitantly gather up all the courage and strength she could possibly muster and loosened her grip on Matt's arm, then ever so slowly took a step. Once she stepped down, a terrible cringe of pain swelled from her foot to the rest of her body, but was compelled to not to give Matt the burden on carrying her, clenched her teeth and took another step with relief.

"I'm not going to let you hurt yourself, Ken," he nagged as he picked her up again. "I have eyes, I can see that hurts you."

Reluctantly, Kendra thanked Matt and put her head to his shoulder.

"What about them?" Kendra pointed her bloody hand to the two unconscious idiots laying on the cold ground, unaware of what had happened to them.

"Who cares?"

"True," she responded, staring at her bloodied hang and wiping her face with the other.

"You know, you're a very brave person," Matt confessed several minutes later, glancing down at her ankle as he kept walking on.

"How's that?" asked Kendra somewhat lazily, she was beginning to feel the effects of losing large amounts of blood.

"How you can go through some of the worst things imaginable and still come out calm or next to calm in some cases. I bet that if the same thing that happened to you earlier happened to another person, they'd be a wreck right now. You broke your ankle, I remember when I broke my pinky when I was ten I cried like a baby, let alone my leg. That's a totally different story," Matt started joking, making Kendra give an airy laugh. She was loosing a lot of blood really fast, it had totally covered her foot and was now dripping down to the ground in a metronome. "I've never seen someone as great as you, Ken. You're such a strong girl, but you don't realize that."

Matt looked back down at Kendra who didn't respond. She had completely passed out. 'Oh no,' he thought desperately. 'Please Ken, we aren't there yet, wake up.' Her face had become white as a sheet and her skin freezing. Frantic, Matt quickly ran to the hospital wing and in a few minutes, finally made it.

"Oh my god, what happened to her?" gawked one of the nurses once he set foot into the wing.

"I think she broke her ankle," Matt answered, the nurse started calling over other nurses with a stretcher. Matt gently placed the cold girl on the stretcher and stared after her as she was carted off.

"Please stay here, hon. There isn't much you can do for her now, but wait. I'm sorry."

"Thank you," Mat replied with a sad smile and sat down on one of the chairs in the waiting room, leaving him to sit in his worry.

* * *

Alisa, Tyler, and Brandon had showed up about an hour later once they heard the news, but there was still no news on Kendra.

"Matt, she's be just fine," started Alisa, taking a hold on his shoulder. "She's a fighter. Kendra will pull through this."

"What if she doesn't?" Matt retorted, shooting his head up at hers. "It could be more than just a broken ankle. You guys didn't see how much she bled, she could have popped a blood vessel or ripped a muscle or..."

"You worry too much," all heads turned to face Brandon who had just decided to come into the conversation.

"He's right, Matt," started Tyler. "I doubt that's what happened. It's probably just a broken ankle, nothing to get all worked up over. It'll be okay."

Just then, the first nurse came in and Matt stood straight up, ready to hear the news.

"How is she?" Matt's worry had shown through his tone.

"She's be just fine, hon," replied the nurse. After hearing the news, Matt gave a huge sigh in relief and relaxed himself again. "Her ankle was broken as you thought, but she did puncture a blood vessel which caused her to bleed a lot. It's nothing to be afraid of, we patched her up and stopped the bleeding. Give her four to five weeks and she'll be good as new. She woke up a little while ago and she really wants to talk to you. I told her that she should rest, but she insisted on seeing you," she directed to Matt who's heart skipped a beat. Matt left his friends in the waiting room and followed the nurse to Kendra's room.

"Hey, Matt," Kendra said weakly as she lifted her hand from her stomach to give him a small wave. Matt stood in the doorway, terrified to even move an inch seeing her in this condition. Still white as a ghost and a thick cast over her broken ankle, covered in a shroud of blankets.

"It's okay," the nurse whispered as she gave him a little nudge. "Just don't work her up, okay? She needs to rest."

Matt cautiously walked up to her, as if she was just about to pass out, and sat in a chair next to her bed. Once he sat down, Kendra took one of his hands in hers and placed it over her stomach. "It's not your fault you know."

"I know it's not, but in a way," his guilt showing through is voice. "I can't help but feel it is. How are you feeling?"

Deciding it best not to contradict him, she answered, "I'm not great, but not bad. It's seems worse than it really is. What about you?"

"I'm just fine, don't worry about me," Matt rubbed her stomach and held her at the hip.

"What ever happened to Dan?"

"I don't know, hopefully he'll leave you alone now though. If he doesn't, he'll be hearing from me."

_He's so cute when he's trying to act tough._

"Matt, you're my hero. You know that, right?" giving him a sweet smile and stroking his arm.

"I guess I do now," replying back.

"I'm very grateful for you and I really want to thank you for everything," Kendra stressed the last word. "You've done for me. I couldn't have asked for more from anyone."

"Ken," Matt stalled and let out a sigh. "Do you consider us to be a-an item? You know, a couple?...I'm sorry, that was a stupid question."

"Um...if you want. I like you a lot and stuff, and I hope the feeling's mutual," she answered shyly. Matt leaned in and gave her a soft kiss on the forehead then came back a bit.

"More than anything," his statement totally took Kendra by surprise, and turned to face his eyes, staring into those deep dark pools of eyes of his. Ever so lightly, Kendra brought her hands to his face and felt every contour of it with her finger tips. Matt smirked and stared back at her eyes, full of loving and caring, longing.

_Just kiss him, this wouldn't be the first time. Come on, Kendra, you can do it._

Kendra, compelled, pulled his head down and their lips met ever so slightly, and then back a little more each proceeding time.

* * *

"I wonder what happened," stated Alisa anxiously. She, Tyler, and Brandon were still sitting in the waiting room together for Matt to come back and to hopefully see Kendra. It had been about ten minutes since Matt left to visit her and he still hadn't come back.

"I think it's one of those 'that's for us to know and for you to never find out' things," Tyler answered boldly. Ever since the beginning of the year, he had started becoming a little more open with his friends and less shy. "They might tell us, but I really don't think they will."

"You never know," another insightful statement by Brandon.

"What could they possibly be talking about that we can't be there with them?" Alisa asked angrily, clenching her fist tightly to the point of her knuckles turning white.

"Gee, Alisa. Calm down. They probably just want to talk alone for a bit. It's only been a few minutes, it's not like they're making-out or anything like that," Tyler calmed, thumb wrestling himself.

"I guess," Alisa still felt disappointed, but slumped down in her seat and sighed heavily every other second.

"You know," Brandon started after dealing with Alisa's annoyance for a few more minutes. "If you really want to see her, just go, I'm sure it'll be fine."

Alisa, taking Brandon's advise, walked up to the nurse and asked if she could to visit her friend.

"I suppose it's alright, but I must warn you, hon, you're other friend is still with her. Maybe you should wait till they're done..."

"It's okay, I can handle it," Alisa said with a smile and started walking off.

"Well, I suppose the three of you should all go now. After you all leave, she's definitely going to need some rest," the nurse said as if telling an inside joke. Confused, Alisa just thanked the nurse and walked off with the two boys to Kendra's room.

"I really hope she's doing alright," started Alisa again, and, again, annoying Tyler. "I don't know what happened, but I'm sure it's traumatic either way."

"Yeah, me too," added Brandon, also in a caring matter.

"Me three," Tyler also said just as he looked into Kendra's door. "You know, I was wrong earlier."

"What about?" questioned Alisa just as she, too, walked in and found exactly what he was talking about; Matt and Kendra kissing as if they were in their own little world, unaware of everything else, totally enveloped in their sea of feelings and love. Alisa couldn't help but give a sigh of relief seeing them finally together. Tyler, however, loudly coughed in embarrassment to try to get their attention, which it did. Matt quickly pulled away from Kendra just as he noticed they were not alone and stared at his friends, mortified. She, however, glanced back from Matt to the others and wiped her lips with her hand.

"Uh, just how long have you guys been standing there?" Matt inquired, biting his lower lip in worry.

"Well, we just kinda got here," Brandon responded, not really affected by what he had just saw. "But we saw enough."

"Matt, we should probably go, I'm sure Ken's tired," Tyler joked, giving a slight smile.

"They're probably right, Matt," added Kendra as she patted his shoulder and watched him stand up from his chair. "Good night."

Just before Matt walked away, he leaned in a gave her a little kiss on the lips and grinned sweetly at her, "Back at you."

"We're glad you're alright," commented Brandon right before he left with Tyler and Matt, leaving Kendra alone in the room with Alisa just in the doorway, staring off into space. It was awkward for Alisa to be just standing there, to have watched...that. She was so happy for her best friend, but couldn't help but feel...jealous.

"Told you he liked you," jokingly nagged Alisa, waging her finger at Kendra, the smiled widely and gave her a thumbs up. "I'm so proud of you." Then Alisa blew her a kiss and stalked off to catch up with the others.

Having never felt more happy in her life, Kendra slowly drifted off to sleep with only on thing on her mind, Matt.

* * *

"When exactly did you two get together?" Tyler questioned as he, Matt, and Brandon were ambling down the hallway and out the front door with Alisa still trying to catch up behind them.

"Earlier," was all Matt responded.

"Okay, I have another question," Tyler started up again, the toned down to a whisper. "She taste sweet?"

Matt paused for a second and bit his lip, trying to hold in his grin, "More than you can imagine."

**Well, that's the end of the 9th chapter, and boy was it long, yay!! I hope it wasn't too bad or cheesy...please tell me if it is. This is the end of part one, but I'm not going to create a whole new story just for the other parts, it will all be on this one, just for future reference. I hope you all enjoy my story, either now or in the future, and I also hope you all review!!**

**Please and thank you!!**

**I have a few shout outs to give here.**

**One to my friend, Kessa, for being to supportive of me all these years and has given me some really great ideas. Because of her, I kept on writing my story.**

**Another one to my friend, Lauren, for also being with me. She has a couple of stories about Cardcaptor Sakura up and they are really good, check them out.**

**Lastly to my friend, Michelle, has given me great advise and an awesome idea for the next story I'm going to write. Michelle has some Maestro fanfics up as well. Worth the read. Also for her tough criticism which I look forward to in the near future.**

**Thanks guys!**


	10. New Year, New Problems

**Okay everyone, welcome back. If it seems like I've been taking a long time on my chapters, blame me. I've been going through a lot lately. I'm sorry about that. Anyway, there will be no more dueling in this story unless I decide to have some, but most likely no. So if that's what you're looking for, look somewhere else. Also, this part of the story starts a little over a year later. Before it was mid December, now it's going to be near the end of January of the next year, and I don't mean like a month later, I mean a year and a month later. So they're sophomores here, just to clear things up, I don't want anyone confused on the matter. Um, that's it for the announcements for now I think. Yeah.**

**Please read and don't be shy on the reviewing! Please and thank you!**

Over a year had past and the gang was all still together, including Matt and Kendra. They had been going just swimmingly for the past year. A week after the ordeel, everyone went on winter break, and a month later, Kendra's wound was completely healed. Matt's birthday was in the beginning of January, but still couldn't wait for break to be over. He was more than happy to be away from home, from his family. Kendra just wanted to be with her best friends and, technically, her boyfriend. Her mother had been so proud of her to have finally made friends who made her so happy. Her father, however, wasn't so happy about her being so far away from him...

Since the past year, Matt, Brandon, and Tyler had all graduated to their next levels. Tyler and Brandon to R Yellow; Matt, O Blue, giving him more time to be with his Kendra. That's all Matt was really concerned about these days other than his school work, being with her and making her happy.

"Hey Ken," Matt greeted as he snuggled up to her sitting down on the bench during lunch. Alisa sat to the other side of her; Tyler and Brandon, on the opposite side of the table. After a year, they had gotten so used to Matt and Kendra's relationship and their occasional gestures of affection towards each other, they did not care so much to feel embarrassed or awkward when ever they did. Matt gave Kendra a little peck on the lips and started eating his sandwich vigorously in big bites.

"Hey Matt...uh, hon, you could try chewing your food," she advised, watching him bite off a piece of his sandwich furiously. Matt cocked his head at her with his mouth half full.

"I'm hungry," was all he replied and swallowed his food. Kendra couldn't help but chuckle a bit and sigh at his remark.

_Such a guy response._

"Well, when you're done inhaling your food, would you mind helping me on my chemistry homework? I know you got thermochemistry down, but I'm not so sure I do," she trailed off as she started rummaging through her backpack, not waiting for his response because she knew he wouldn't turn her down on such a simple matter.

"Sure, what is it you can't do?" he asked, leaning in to see the multiple pieces of paper Kendra had just placed on the table and looked over them with a perceptive eye.

"Well, on the fourth page is the stuff about mixing two different samples together at different temperatures and states, I'm just a little confused about that..." she anxiously watched Matt as he trailed her notes and work with his index finger, giving no sign of disapproval, and took out his homework to compare.

"You're getting the right answers, just not doing all the work Mr. Banner wants you to..."

"What else am I suppose to do?"

"Well, there's the conversion," he started, showing her exactly what he was talking about. Once she started to understand, she beamed up at him, a sweet smiled spreading across her face. He, too, smiled down to her, his eyes bouncing back and fourth from hers.

Suddenly, a flash of light illuminated them along with a clicking noise. The couple looked up to see Brandon holding a camera right in front of them, his finger on the clicker.

"What was that for?" Matt pressed, slightly annoyed.

"Alisa wanted me to take a good picture of you guys," was his only response as he gave Alisa back her camera and went back to his lunch.

"Why?"

"I don't know," Alisa started, going through her photos in the camera and finding the new one, then smiled gently at it. Obviously pleased with it. "I just wanted a picture of you guys. You're so cute together!"

"I'm not going to argue with that," Matt subsided from the conversation and went back to the mess of work sheets.

"Don't worry," Alisa assured Kendra who was still beaming. "I'll get you a copy."

Giving her a nod, Kendra went back Matt and started working on the problems again.

Once Alisa saw them totally distracted, she leaned over the table to face Brandon and Tyler.

"Have you guys noticed that they've been getting along particularly well lately?"

"Oh, yeah, it's kinda funny watching them, the fights they get into, you know? Like an old married couple," Tyler added sarcastically, who had changed noticeably in the past year. Since the past year, he had grown about six inches, and also had a change of character. His once shy, quiet self had become more...sociable in a way.

"Tyler, don't be a smart alec," stated Brandon.

"Do you even know what that means?"

"Yes I do. I'm not that dense," Brandon scoffed back, crossing his arms in disapproval.

"Knock it off," Alisa hissed back, hitting Tyler upside the head. "You know what I mean, Ty. They have chemistry."

"Yeah, 7th period," replied Brandon, not quite catching what she meant by 'chemistry.' Tyler pierced his lips tight and flung out his hand, giving a 'see what I mean?' look to Alisa. Brandon hadn't changed one bit. "They have it together don't they?"

"Yes, they do," Alisa agreed, allowing his comment, then went back to her lunch.

* * *

Soon after, the bell signaling the end of lunch sounded and everyone went to their next classes. Then after words, the next class which was Matt and Kendra's chemistry class. The class went normally; lectures, presentations, same old same old. Later in the class period, their teacher went over the homework that Matt had help Kendra with. Now it actually made complete sense to her, others, however, were totally lost. Lucky she had someone as smart and wonderful as Matt around.

Shortly after, the second bell rand and everyone started packing up to go to their next class; the teacher, Mr. Danner, however, received a phone call and automatically answered it.

"Miss Kaiser?" he called after hanging up the phone just before she left with Matt. "Could I have a word?"

"Of course, Mr. Danner. You don't have to wait up for me, Matt," she said as she walked to the teacher's desk, leaving Matt walking out the door alone. Matt, however, felt he should wait for her and just stood outside the door and leaned against the wall.

"Miss Kaiser, that was just the dean who called me and he gave me information on a topic and wanted you to know right away. _He's_ coming," the teacher emphasized. Obviously understanding what the teacher meant, Kendra's eyes grew wide in terror as she thought about what this meant to her.

'"He?"' Matt thought curiously. 'Who is this "he?"'

"When?" was her only response.

"Some time tomorrow. Maybe in the afternoon," sighed Mr. Danner, then looked up at the girl. "Have you told anyone?"

"No one."

"Not even your friends? Or -er- Mr. Folks?" he wasn't quite sure what exactly to call Matt though he was aware of their current status.

"No."

"Wow, well I suggest you keep it that way and I'm sure Dean Chow would agree with me," Kendra just nodded in agreement while biting her lower lip, still trying to predict the consequences of _his_ arrival. "Also, the dean wishes to conference with you after your classes, so after your last class please go to the dean's office. Well, I think I've kept you **and** Mr. Folks here long enough. You two better go to class."

_Mr. Folks? Matt's here? Wait...did he hear **everything **we were saying? Oh no..._

Matt bite his lip, hard, once he heard Mr. Danner say his name, realizing he was caught listening, and appeared in the doorway with a guilty expression on his face. "See you two next week."

Kendra quickly stalked out the room, an unfathomable look on her face, while grabbing onto Matt's collar and dragged him along.

"I can't believe you did that," she said, her voice monotone.

"Ken, let me explain."

"I should be able to trust you..."

"Ken."

"But you eavesdropped on us!"

"Ken!" he stated, pulling her by the arm to his chest and holding her right in front of him so she would listen. "I was waiting for you. I know you told me I should go on, but I didn't want to leave you behind, so I waited. I didn't mean to hear your conversation with Mr. Danner, but I did. I don't even know what you guys were talking about. So, will you calm down now?"

"I'm sorry for getting on your case like that," Kendra apologized as Matt slowly released her from his grip, then shyly took his hand in hers and began pulling him to their next class, shoving pass everyone going in the opposite direction. "You know how I get."

"I know, but...is there any possibility of you telling me what you guys were talking about?"

"None."

"You sure?"

"Hon, I love you, but there is no way I'm going to tell you."

* * *

Within the next period, Matt found out just what they were talking about as Dean Chow announced to everyone over the speaker. The _he_ they mentioned was Sean Fraser, a famous duel equipment designer and duelist, whom many people, including Brandon, idolized. Fraser also was the CEO of his own company of equipment manufacturing, and his products were top of the line and the most popular. And on top of everything, he was the one and only founder of the school.

About twenty years earlier, the only provider of equipment was Princeton Co., a mediocre producer of dueling goods at the time. Soon after the monopoly, Fraser Corp. came into the business and dominated, leaving the Princetons out of business. Fraser Corp. was still on top with little competition, and was still the most popular of excellent quality dueling equipment. And the man who had started it all, the man who's name everyone knew, was coming here.

Just as the last bell rang, Kendra had finished packing her bag and was all ready to go.

"Matt, I'm going to the dean's office now," she stated, standing right in front of him as he got up from his seat. "And please, don't wait up for me this time."

"Fine, fine, fine," he smiled, looking down at her as he rubbed her arms. "I'll try to refrain myself."

After saying her goodbyes, Kendra quickly rushed out of the room without another word, leaving Matt alone.

'What does Fraser have anything to do with Kendra?' Matt wondered as he walked to his dorm, still by himself.

* * *

"Did you hear the news?" Brandon excitedly asked, almost bouncing out of his own skin.

"How couldn't we?" said Tyler back in his sarcastic tone, quickly rolling his eyes.

"He's the coolest guy ever," Brandon emphasized, again Tyler eyed in annoyance.

"So we've heard," Matt replied with a stiffened voice, obviously distracted with something else.

"What's the matter?" Alisa questioned in concern, trying to reach out to him, but Matt shrugged away.

"I'm okay."

"Liar."

"Well, it's just that," Matt started, thinking Alisa knew too much for her own good. "I don't know much about it, but Ken is keeping something from me. All I know is that it has something to do with Fraser. It's bothering me so much. She refused to tell me what's going on..."

"Maybe she doesn't want you to..."

"To what?" his tone steadily increasing in volume, but still trying to maintain control. "Worry? You realize you're talking about me, right? I'm always worried. You guys don't really know what happened a year ago, I do. She worries me, and her not telling me what's going on makes me worry even more."

"Matt, don't worry about her. I'm sure she doesn't want you to worry, but maybe it's just something that we don't need to know."

"I can't help it," Matt confessed, lowering his head, somewhat embarrassed by his outburst. "By the way, have you see her this morning, Lis?"

"I saw her really early this morning when I woke up. She was leaving somewhere, I don't know where though. Matt don't worry," Alisa said, seeing his upset expression. "I doubt she's doing anything you should be worried over, plus, I don't think she'll like that you're not trusting her like you should. I'm sure there is a good reason why she's being secretive."

"I know, I just can't help but feel she should tell me these things."

"Well, don't piss her off, alright?" stated Tyler, patting his shoulder in assurance. "I'm sure you've done enough."

Before responding, Matt could hear a faint noise steadily becoming louder and louder in mere seconds. Matt quickly craned his neck to look off at the right, then turned himself around to look off into the distance. The figure of a jet about fifty miles away drew closer to the school and within a few minutes, touched down on the ground on the runway on the edge of school grounds.

"Looks like someone's early," Matt breathed out as he quickly walked over to the site of the landing, his friends right on his heels.

* * *

The door hinges of the jet slowly released, letting down the door with built-in steps as the engine of the jet roared down to a slight drone, dark blue eyes glowed from the doorway. Once the noise dimmed, a very tall, slim, medium brown-haired man walked down the steps and onto the ground. The man sported a sleek white suit with black leather suitcase and looked quite official dressed up so. He couldn't be more than forty-five years old. Within a minute of getting off the jet, Dr. Prowler, the school math teacher and the dean's assistant, rushed to him at a running pace.

"Oh. My. God," Brandon exasperated, huffing between each word. "It's. Fraser."

The four were just about twenty feet away from the adults and totally out of sight, but barely to really hear what they were saying due to the drone of the plane.

"Ah, Mr. Fraser," stiffened Dr. Prowler, hyperventilating from his run and said with a slight edge. "You're here early."

"There was a slight change in plans. Is there a problem?" Fraser's tone was anything but inviting. It was more cold, not quite mean, but icy...

"No, no, no, no, no, of course not," an eager to please Dr. Prowler commented. "We just weren't expecting you to be here so early. Please don't be offended, sir."

"It'll be alright, Prowler," Fraser's tone was unchanged. "I do assume everything is ready for my arrival, am I correct? This is one of the best schools in the country, is it not? Or is that why you were so worked up to see I was early?"

"No, sir, not at all!" protested Dr. Prowler, trying his best to hide his raising anger.

"You would think that the staff would prepare days before the expected arrival..."

"Alright, we weren't quite ready for you **at this time**, but preparations are being made as we speak. Please don't be bothered by our incompetence and think our school disgraceful because of it," Dr. Prowler pleaded, practically on his knees groveling for forgiveness.

"Get up," demanded Fraser, and so Prowler did with the most gracious expression. "An apology for your negligence would be acceptable, you don't have to kiss my shoes."

"My apologies, sir. I hope I didn't offend you, sir. Let's just leave it at that, preparations will be made in a short amount of time, leave all this nasty business behind us, and be on our way."

"Just as civilized adults," Fraser spat out, this tone was still icy cold, then started walking off, Prowler on his heels.

"Do you need any help with your suit case?" offered Prowler, extending his hand to the said object.

"I don't need your help."

"How's you're family doing?"

"I don't think that's any of you're business."

"How have you been?"

"I've been worse, though I can't really think of a time when I was at the moment."

"I had heard of your sense of humor, Mr. Fraser. And I have to say, you are quite the comedian," Prowler complimented, feeling defeated.

"Well, then. If that's the case, then I should quite my current job and seek to become a _comedian_," Fraser's tone was not humorous the least bit. But still he was serious and cold as a the inside of a freezer.

"You kill me, sir," Prowler managed to get through his chuckling.

"If only..."whispered Fraser.

"What was that?"

"Nothing..."

"He's kinda mean, wouldn't you say?" asked Matt in the safety of their hiding spot.

"Yeah. I wonder what he has to do with Ken..." Alisa replied, trailing off, then caught sight of Brandon who was unconsciously stalking off towards the two men. "Brandon, get back here."

"Brandon, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Tyler hissed, but their attempts were futile. Brandon walked off still, deaf to their pleas.

"Mr. Wayne! What do you think you're doing here?" yelled Dr. Prowler once he saw Brandon walking over to their guest, but he didn't stop. "I highly suggest you go to your dorm, young man! You shouldn't be here!"

"Prowler," stated Fraser sharply as he raised up a hand to cut him off. "I highly doubt this boy is any threat to us. Now, what is it, son?"

Brandon shuffled up to Fraser ever so carefully, trying to suck up as much of the moment as he possibly could. His idol, James Fraser, noted one of the most well-to-do men in the world, master of the dueling world, was in front of him, talking to him. How could this be?

"You're the best!" Brandon exasperated with an ear-to-ear smile.

"So I've been told," Fraser commented, sounding a little more warm towards Brandon. "What's your name, son?"

"I'm..." Brandon's energy had worn out and was now feeling really woozy. "I'm..."

And so, Brandon collapsed on the ground. Fraser quickly dropped to the ground and consciously checked his pulse, his expression still unmoved. Within seconds, the others had sprinted over to the scene.

"He'll be fine," Fraser stated, looking up at the gang, then back at the boy. These kids all looked extremely familiar to him, he just couldn't put his finger on it... "Does he do this often?"

"No, no he-he doesn't. He-he's just a big fan of yours," Matt stuttered, shaken up by the ordeal.

"I can tell...make sure you get your friend some help. Dr. Prowler and I are on a tight schedule. He'll probably wake up in a few minutes," Fraser confirmed, getting up and grabbing his suitcase. "What are your names?"

"Well, I'm Alisa," she stated.

"Matthew."

"Tyler."

"And our unconscious friend here is Brandon," Alisa referred to Brandon.

"It was nice to meet you all. Please give Brandon my regards when he wakes up..."

"Wait, Mr. Fraser, sir?" Matt started just as Fraser was about to walk off. Fraser quickly turned around to face them, his tone so much more gentle than it was earlier with Prowler. The man's dark blue eyes sprang to Matt's, stopping him in his tracks. There was something about this man's eyes...Matt couldn't shake the feeling.

A few feet away, Prowler purposely gave a loud sigh in annoyance to get their attention, but Fraser could care less.

"What is it?"

"You wouldn't happen to know a Kendra Kaiser...would you?"

Fraser hesitated for a moment, giving Matt and emotionless luke-warm stare, "Sorry, Matthew, the name doesn't ring a bell. Please get your friend some help."

With that, Fraser walked off, an infuriated Prowler stalking behind him, leaving Matt and the others baffled.

"Good kids," Fraser whispered to himself as he walking into the nearest building.

**Well, that's the end of this chapter!! Boy, I'm tired, it's really late...yawn. Sorry it took so long, so much stuff has been happening lately. Just be patient, they will come. Sorry if this stuff is corny, I think it's pretty obvious what's going on...or is it? Duh duh duh! Okay, really tired now. Good night everyone!! And please read and review!!**


	11. Together, Yet Somehow Apart

**Alright, new chapter. D****é****j****à**** vu much? This is just the 11****th**** of many, and I mean many…yeah. It's not going to end any time soon….trust me. OMG. Why did I make this so long? (beating myself up) Let's digress from that topic. I just hope I can get these chapters to you guys sooner. If you want the chapters shorter or longer, just tell me. Don't be afraid to be a critic, I don't bite. I hope to get done with the second part this month, it's about a quarter of the way so far, then things should go a little quicker after that. There are four parts to this story, just to inform you all. Then there will another story. Okay, I hope you all are enjoying the story! Also, I kinda lied about there not going to be any more mushy, lovie-dovie stuff. There's a bit in this chapter, just a little bit. No making out, so if that's what you were worrying about, you can rest easy. Sometimes, I can't really tell you some of the stuff in advance because I'm rewriting the whole story from scratch pretty much. So, sorry in advance if that ever happens again.**

**Oh, and I've been forgetting to mention, I own most of the characters in this story. Others are from the Yu-Gi-Oh GX series and have been renamed. Like Chad, he's suppose to be Chazz (not much of a name difference though). Also, Fraser is suppose to be like Kaiba from the original series. Kaiba's cool, that's all I have to say about him! He may be a jerk, but he's still awesome! Again, I do not own some of the characters in my story!**

"He knows about her," Matt stated, helping Tyler and Alisa carry Brandon off to his dorm.

"Yeah, I got that impression too," Alisa agreed, unable to believe those words came out of her mouth. Tyler gawked at them suspiciously, he too, couldn't believe what he heard.

"What the hell are you guys talking about? That was totally pointless…" Tyler screeched in annoyance at his friends.

"Matt's right. Didn't you see Fraser hesitate?"

"Yeah, maybe he was trying to remember her name and it just couldn't ring a bell?"

"Fraser's eyes were on Matt the whole time. That was more of a 'what should I say?' hesitation. He was thinking up an excuse…."

"Why are you guys carrying me?" Brandon asked groggily, looking up at Matt's face then down to Alisa and Tyler at his feet.

"Because you passed out," explained Alisa as she and Tyler lowered Brandon's feet down to the ground. Matt hovered just behind him just incase Brandon decided to topple over.

"Good thing you're awake, too. People have been giving us weird looks…" Matt trailed off, still right at Brandon's side.

"What happened?"

"Well…" started Matt, trying to find the rights words, not wanting to upset his friend. "He asked you what your name is, then you sort of passed out…"

"Crap!" Brandon swore at himself, smacking himself on the face. "I didn't even say five words to the guy…"

"Actually, you only said four words," Tyler corrected as he patted his friend on the shoulder. In humiliation, Brandon lowered his head, looking down at the cold ground. Brandon started to recall the said events: seeing his idol for the first time, hearing his coldness in person, then nothing.

"He was worried about you when you passed out," Matt added. "He told us that, when you wake up, to give you his regards."

"Well, that was nice of him, but he's still just going to remember me as 'the boy who fainted before he even said five words to me.'"

"..."

* * *

"Matt, hon, you better not bug him about it," lectured Alisa as she and the others were hanging out together after dinner time. Alisa had told them that Kendra showed up earlier to get something from her room, then shortly left and hasn't come back since.

"Yeah, with the kind of money he has," Tyler added, his eyes drifting elsewhere. "He can deport you to the other side of the world and back in 1st class."

"You think I don't know that?" Matt retorted, rubbing his face with his right hand in annoyance. The friends were just sitting at a bench in the court yard, aimlessly talking about the past day and Fraser. "Plus, I wasn't intending on coercing the truth out of him. I wish Kendra would just tell us…"

"Well, she's not going to," Tyler leaned back a bit and crossed his arms over his chest with a slight smirk on his face.

"Unless you suck up to her a bit maybe…" Brandon shied in, also with a grin.

"She's not going to give into that."

* * *

"Matt, what's gotten into you?" Kendra asked Matt the next day. He had, finally, caught with her in the evening, affectionately holding her, hugging her, kissing her…

"I've just missed you so much…" Matt started, sitting her down on the bench at the river by the girls campus, giving her a kiss on the cheek. It was their spot. "Is that a crime?"

"Of course not," she smiled up at him, she, too, had missed seeing him: his handsome face, warm smile, calm eyes…. "I'm sorry I haven't been around lately."

"It's okay," Matt pulled her closer to him and took in the smell of her hair, again the citric scent he loved. "You're here now."

"I've missed being here. Hey, did I tell you 'happy birthday' yet?"

"Only a couple hundred times. That was already a few weeks ago, Ken…"

"You got your license, right?" she asked, looking up at him in wonder and amusement.

"Yeah?"

"What's driving like? I feel left out, I don't even have my permit."

"Interesting. The first time behind the wheel was pretty nerve-racking. But, uh, it wasn't what I expected. It gets better though, you know, once you get the hang of it…"

"Can you give me a lesson?" Kendra asked, putting his hands into hers.

"Of course. First of all, you need to put your seat belt on or you'll get a ticket," Matt pulled up her left hand in his as if grabbing for the seat belt, but instead, brought it to his mouth and kissed it tenderly and brushed it across his lips. Then, pulled it up higher, pretending to get the belt, and pulled it to her opposite side. Matt rubbed his cheek up against hers and hesitated, his arms completely wrapped around her. Kendra felt a warmness in her face once their cheeks touched and, though she couldn't see, she knew her face had turned red. "There, all safe."

"Thank you," she giggled out, biting her lower lip in amusement and squeezing onto his hand.

"No problem," Matt whispered into her ear, making her blush face blush even more furiously than before. Then he gently took both of her hands and lifted them in front of her as if holding the steering wheel. "Now that you have your seat belt on, what do you do now?"

"Turn on the engine?"

"Go for it," still whispering, Matt allowed Kendra's hand to lead itself to the key in the ignition and turned the key.

"Vroom?" she said with some uncertainty, pretending to make the noise car do when just turned on.

"Good, now before you start driving the car, make sure you check your mirrors. On the rear view mirror, you want to be able to have a clear view of the whole range of the rear view window. Then the side mirrors are suppose to give you a view of the sides of the car."

"Okay," she responded, pretending to adjust the mirrors.

"Now put your foot on the brake."

She did.

"Take the car off the handle brake."

She released the brake at her side.

"Now put the car in reverse to back up."

And Kendra did was she was told.

"Make sure when you back up, you look over your right should when you're going straight, then everywhere when you're turning."

Kendra pantomimed backing up and turning to the left.

"Great, now put the car in drive and softly put your foot on the accelerator and push down on it slightly."

Again, she did what she was told.

"You're doing great," again, cooing into her ear, and once again, her face flushed. "Now I want you to turn into the left lane. First you're going to turn on your blinker. You push it down to signal left; up, right. Look into your left mirror, but also look over your left shoulder. There could be a car in your blind spot, so make sure you check over the left shoulder."

Automatically, Kendra pushed down on the imaginary blinker, looked into the mirror, and turned her head to the left. Unexpectedly, she came face to face with Matt's and paused in shock.

__

What should I do, he's right here! Even though we've been together for the past year, we still don't kiss very much…

Giving her no time to respond, Matt swiftly came in and kissed her softly on the lips, then pulled back, showing that intoxicating slanted smile of his.

"Perfect," was all he said and that was all that really mattered.

Cautiously, Kendra snuggled into his chest, seeing whether or not he would accept her advance. Showing no sign of disapproving her gesture, she leaned up against him facing the river. Staring into the sparkling reflection of the starry sky reminded Kendra of that night over a year ago, the night she truly fell for him. It already seemed like ages ago, but the memory was still clear in her head. It was then that she finally realized how far they had come since that night. He used to be so cute back then, now he was something totally different. Strange enough, she thought, he had transformed into a man. That boyish charm he possess last year that took hold over her emotions had evolved into pure infatuation, but, somehow, it was more than that. More than just her, a love sick teenager, foolishly loving this man. No, there was nothing foolish about it. This was the real deal. Could it really be?

...ring...

"Is that your cell phone?" he asked, hearing the muffled ringing tone. It took Kendra a few seconds to register what he meant, then pulled out her phone that she could now hear.

"I need to take this," were her only words as she flipped open the phone then brought it to her ear.

Several "Okays" and "Fines" later, Kendra closed up the phone and sprung loose from Matt's grasp as she lifted herself up in a standing possition.

"I need to go," her voice was somber, sad. She didn't want to have to leave him, but she knew she had to...

"You have to go to the dean's office again, don't you?" he didn't even need to ask it as a question. He knew. That's the only place she's been lately, but it was starting to become more frequent.

"I'm sorry," was all she said, not quite answering his question. Kendra could feel his soft eyes grow sharp on her. This bothered him, having to go there, but she had no choice in the matter. She just had to, she just couldn't explain why.

_Why can't I just tell **him**? One person wouldn't hurt...but that's what I thought last time... Why must life be so difficult?_

"Matt, I'm really sorry," she apologized as he stood up, his head tilted to the left and looking down at the ground. "But I have to go."

"Fine. See you," he replied, still not looking at her face.

"See you." And she ran off leaving Matt alone by the river side, their spot. The place where their feelings came to light, and now he was without her by his side. Being there, seeing the beautiful river, and the sparkling reflections without her by his side made him sick to his stomach. It just wasn't right, so he left, too, heading for his dorm.

'What the hell is she keeping from me?' Matt thought angrily as he left the scene, happy to be away from it.

****

Alright. I think that will wrap up this chapter! This one was kinda short compared to the others…uh, yeah. There will be a bit of stupidity in the next couple of chapters. Just to warn you, I didn't think of some of the ideas in the next ones. Well, I thought of the original ideas, but my friends thought of the…um…details. I'm not going to change it. I guess it's good for a laugh in a disturbing sort of way. That's all I'm going to say about that! Thank you everyone! That was a really big into...no more of that.


	12. A Mysterious Photo

**Okay, new chapter. I'm friggin pumped man! Are you ready for this?…okay, so it's not that impressive, but I would like to think so! Alright, enough of me making a fool of myself. There will be a lot of stupidity in this chapter and maybe the next…I don't know. Again, I'm rewriting, so no promises…on much. Maybe I'm over exaggerating…never mind. I'm just being silly. About half way through this part more or less. Please review even if it's for no apparent reason! I am somewhat desperate for comments! Oh, and the thing earlier about thermo chemistry and driving….we were learning thermo chemistry crud in my chemistry class, not fun. And I got my driving permit a while ago, so I'm pretty psyched about that! I still can't believe I'm driving…if you guys knew me, you'd be scared to even be on the sidewalks…Just putting a little bit of my life into the story. Okay, I don't really know what else to say right now….uh, yeah. Flarglee gargledee goop! Yeah, that was stupid. TTFN!**

**Please people!! Review for my benefit! Reviewing is good!! Me likie reviewie! I'm becoming very desperate very quickly!! But it's okay if you don't. I'm a reasonable person. If you people don't want me to be desperate, please tell me that I'm being an idiot! It's all good people!**

"Matt, if she doesn't want to tell us, then that's just how it's going to be," Alisa lectured to him after school the next day. For once, Kendra had been around all day, but now she was with Brandon and Tyler in the courtyard helping them on their math homework. Now, Alisa and Matt were walking to their dorm together with him trying to bring Kendra into the subject again.

"I know, but I can't help but feel that she's keeping something big from me..."

"So? You never talk about yourself. The only reason I know so much about you is because I've known you for so long."

"That's besides the point." Matt knew it was the truth, though. "Don't tell me you're not curious."

"So what if I am?" she asked defensively. "When you guys were together last night, you didn't ask her about it the whole time, did you?"

"I didn't even ask. I've only asked her once and that was...you saw us last night?" Embarrassment crept along his face once he realized what she had just said.

"You'd be surprised by the view I have from my window," Alisa smartly replied, feeling triumphant.

"Disturbing..." Matt trailed off, imagining what else she might have possibly seen.

"Anyway..." she got back to the subject, clearing her throat. "You guys were just so darn adorable yesterday!"

"Alisa?"

"It was so cute when you were giving her driving advise."

"Alisa?"

"And then you kissed her! Such the romantic you are, Matt."

"Alisa!" Grabbing a hold of her shoulders and shaking her slightly to get her attention. "Aren't you the least bit curious about her?"

"Of course I am! I would appreciate it if she could tell us too!" she retorted, jerking out of his grasp with one quick movement. "But she wants this bit of her life to be hidden from the rest of us and I'm sure it's for a good reason. And I know you're her boyfriend and all...but she still has the right to do whatever she wants."

"I know." His tone was depressed as he thought over what she had said. "I really love that about her. Her independence I mean...off topic. The point is that this could be anything, and her not saying anything about it makes me think the worst! For all we know, this Fraser guy could be one of those guys who likes to marry young girls..."

"You're not actually suggesting that Ken is Fraser's wife, are you?" Alisa stared at him with a contorted face in disbelief, wondering why he would even think that. "Isn't it illegal to marry under-aged?"

"Yes. It's also illegal to smoke pot, but people do it anyway."

"Well, doesn't Fraser already have a wife that's Irish born, and **his age**? So, in other words, not Kendra?"

"He could be a polygamist..." Matt brought a hand to a chin and rubbed it as he pondered. Time to shave again...

Alisa quickly smacked him, hard, though she had put her whole body into it, against his arm, trying to knock to sense into him. "Are you crazy? Of course he's not! You're letting this get into your head..."

"I know," he retorted as he rubbed his abused arm. "But you didn't have to hit me like that!"

"Well, you were acting stupid..."

"I was speaking rhetorically. Either way, you didn't need to smack me!"

"I'm sorry...you were still being stupid," Alisa mumbled under her breath, then something clicked in her mind and look up at him. "Doesn't he have a daughter?"

"Yeah," Matt started and stared at her as if she was debating against a mathematical proof. "Haven't you ever seen pictures of her in the paper? She looks nothing like Ken. She's not exactly what you'd call good looking, unlike Kendra who's extremely good looking."

"Well, I was speaking rhetorically," she mimicked him and giving him a snooty look on her face, making him chuckle for a second.

"But seriously, no."

"Well, I'm the only one who actually thought of something probable." Alisa got up in his face, getting more annoyed with him by the minute. "You're smart, you think of something."

"Yeah, right. I'm book smart, other than that," he started as he brought an extended finger to his face and tapped himself at the temple. "Not much going on up here."

"I highly doubt that," Alisa commented, bringing his arm down to his side. 'Woah," she thought as she slightly touched his arm. 'He's got some pretty nice muscles going on here...' Once realizing what she had just thought to herself, Alisa quickly broke out of her trance, released his arm and sprang them back to her sides. Thankfully for her, he was too caught up in his own problems to notice her hesitation. In an instant, Alisa snapped back to being annoyed and to their previous conversation. "Well, I suppose I'm going to be the one to think up all the good ideas, is that it? What do you want me to do? Go into her room? Play detective for you? Well guess again."

* * *

"Why must I always give into that boy?" Alisa asked herself as she knocked on the door connecting her room to Kendra's. No response. Cautiously, she opened the door a crack and peered through opening. No sign of Kendra or any other person. Feeling a little more secure, Alisa slowly slipped through the crack and tip-toed to the middle of the room. Again, Alisa looked around just to make sure there was no sign of life in the dorm and calmed herself down.

"Okay, what is it I'm looking for?" she pondered to herself, almost forgetting why she had snuck into Kendra's room in the first place. But to her surprise, she didn't really know. Troubling questions started pouring into her mind like a waterfall. Why was she here? What was she doing? How did she get this far? What possessed her in doing this?

Thinking about her questions for a while, only one answer came to her head.

Matt.

Some how, Matt was able to convince Alisa to sneak into Kendra's room to investigate, but Alisa was unable to remember how...

He never told her to do it. Actually, it was her idea in the first place.

Why was she doing this for him?

Matt.

Alisa stood in one lone spot in the middle of Kendra's room, going no where, dumbly thinking about him. After about a minute, Alisa snapped out of her trance-like state and pushed the thought of him in the back of her mind.

"Alisa," she thought to herself while hitting her head rather hard with the palm of her hand. "Don't need to be thinking about that. You're a big girl now, get over it..."

No matter how much she tried to shake the thought way, it still lingered in her main thoughts.

"Okay, what was I doing here? Oh yeah." Her original thought popped back into her mind and, again, started looking about the room.

Almost automatically, Alisa spotted the picture she had given Kendra just a few days earlier. The picture of Kendra and Matt together during lunch, mindlessly smiling at each other over some thermochemistry problems. Since then, the photo had been framed and giving a place of honor on her desk by the computer monitor.

"She must really love that picture," she whispered, taking hold of the frame and bringing it up to her face. Slowly, Alisa brought the tips of the fingers of the right hand and gently passed them over the glass, her fingers lingering over the image of Matt. Once she got her fill, Alisa placed the frame back in its original position with more force than necessary and moved on.

Clearing her mind, Alisa walked around the room, looking in every nook and cranny. Searching through every drawer Alisa knew that did not have any clothes, under the bed, even in the trash, throwing everything out of place. Then out of the blue, while going through the top drawer in Kendra's nightstand in the bed room, was the distinctive back of a picture.

But before being able to grab at the picture, Alisa heard the noise of a door being unlocked; the front door. Without hesitation, Alisa slammed the drawer and made a brake for the door to her room.

"Alisa?" Kendra asked in confusion once she saw her friend at the other door, just before she was able to open it. "What are you doing?"

Alisa bit her lip, hard, trying to think of a good excuse as to why she would be there, but was interrupted.

"And what did you do to my room?!" Kendra's eyes swept the room: everything on the floor, the carpet barely visible through the mess. "It looks like a tornado went through here!"

"Well, I just thought it would be nice to get a little spring cleaning in." Alisa shot a wide toothy smile, trying her best to hide her guilt.

"'Spring cleaning?'" Kendra repeated, even more confused than before. "It's January."

_And if she thinks this is "clean," I don't know what she considers is spotless..._

"It's always good to get an early start. Wouldn't you agree?"

"In this case, no..."

"Well..." Alisa trailed off, desperately grabbing for the door knob to make her escape. "I think I better be going now. Time to start on my room."

"You do that..." Kendra took another woeful look around the room as Alisa slithered behind the door. Taking in a deep breath, Kendra began to pick up groups of items and tried to remember where exactly they had been before.

Closing the door behind her, Alisa sighed loudly and leaned against the door, slowly sliding down till she sat on the floor. Alisa tightly pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them, listening to the faint sound of Kendra cleaning up the mess on the other side of the door.

"She's never going to trust me to be in there again," Alisa whined, banging her head against the door with a quiet thump. "I'm going to kill that boy."

"'Spring cleaning,'" Kendra mimicked in a nasty tone as she was just putting all the trash back in the trash can and headed to her bed room. It too was a mess. Picking up some various items, she brought them over to the top drawer of her nightstand and opened it. At once, she spotted the picture and held it up to look at it. She made no face expression at the picture and placed in back in it's original position, also putting the things in her arms on top of it and closed the drawer.

_I really hope she didn't see that._

* * *

"Matt, I'm gonna kick your ass!" Alisa screamed at his face, jerking him by the collar of his shirt once she caught up with him the next day during lunch.

"What'd I do?" he retorted, staring at her angry eyes as he tried pulling her hand as far away from his neck as possible.

"Don't give me that. You know perfectly well what you did!"

"Honestly, I don't." Matt took a small step back and held his hand out in front of himself in defense, "Would you mind telling me what I did?"

"**You** made me go into her room, that's what you did." Alisa turner around on one heel, her back facing his face, for added strength in her argument.

"What?" Matt quietly asked, not quite understanding what she meant, then it clicked. "Oh, that. Well, in my defense, I never told you to go into her room. You did that on your own accord. Don't blame me."

"But I do blame you! If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have gone!"

"Well, I will take in account that I wanted to know what she's hiding," he addressed as he walked up right behind her and placed a hand on her right shoulder, cringe. Matt gently turned her around and put his other hand on her left shoulder. Again, she became temporarily paralyzed. "But I wasn't the one that suggested that you go there, nor was I the one to tell you to do so. Am I right?"

Alisa's lips were shut tight, unable to say a word as she looked up at him.

"I'll just take that as a yes. Well, as long as we're on the subject...did you find anything?" Matt shied, then started to stammer. "I-I mean, well, y-you know. It's been on my mind for so long, a-and she's refused to tell me a thing..."

"Not really," she shot out, looking to the side of his head. "There was a picture in her nightstand that I wasn't able to get a look at. Then that's when she walked in on me!"

"I'm sorry..."

"And don't even think about talking me into getting it! She's never going to trust me the same again!"

"Again, I'm sorry, but I plead innocent in this matter. I'm sure she'll be over it in a few days."

"Even so, I want you to make it up to me," she shied, glancing up at him in the eye and clasping her hands behind her back.

"And what would that be, might I ask?" His smile was curious if somewhat cautious of what she wanted.

"You go into her room and you get the picture," she challenged, pointing at him every time she said "you."

"Ah," he started, grabbing her finger and pulling it down. "No. One, if that's how she reacted when she saw you, just think of what she would do to me. I'll tell you what she'd do, she'd kick my ass that's what. Two, if you haven't already noticed, I'm sort of a guy. NO GUYS ALLOWED ON THE GIRLS CAMPUS. Why can't you do it?"

"She's never going to let me in there again," Alisa snapped, again pointing at him. "Unless you haven't already heard. Plus, she's not going to let any other girl in there, I'm her only real gal friend here. And if you're really discrete about it, she won't catch you and you'll get out of there with the picture. Nothing to lose."

"Okay, I see what you're saying," Matt pondered as he brought a hand to his chin and rubbed it, still needing to shave. "You just fail to understand one little concept here. I'M A GUY! Do you need proof? Feel my face, I need to shave. I've got muscle were no girl should have them. And I've got--"

"That's far enough!" she interrupted, putting a hand out in front of him, forcing him to stop. "I don't need to know about your man-ness! You wouldn't go in there like you are right now."

"And may I ask, what other way would I go?" Matt did not understand what she was thinking about, nor did he really want to know, but he questioned anyway.

"You go as a girl, that's what!"

"..." he paused, his face contorted with confusion. "And how do you propose I do that, I wonder?"

"Well, you dress up as a girl, that's what," she stated, her tone noticeably quieter. "It's not that hard."

"Yeah, and this is coming from someone who actually is a girl," Matt snapped back at her then turned slightly away from her. "If you think I'm going to do something as stupid as that, you're wrong."

"Don't you want to know what..."

"Of course, but don't you think this is sort of dumb? I'm starting to think you've become really desperate to know."

"Well, I'm just as curious as you. You know you want to find it out, so just go with it, I'll help you and everything, Matt. Please?" she whined in his face, forcing him to look at her puppy-dog eyes.

"I..."

"Please?"

**So much stupidity, really. So, will Matt go for it? Or not? That's rather obvious...or is it? Get ready for even more stupidity in the next chapter! Okay, I lied before, but atleast this is a short...outro.**


	13. Incognito

**Alright, new chapter, once again. Sometimes I wish this would just be done and over with, but what would be the fun in that, right? Not waiting, not anticipating the next chapter, that's not nearly as fun. Okay, that's all I have for right now. Please, enjoy! And yeah, I changed the title. I'm going to break the story into two parts. It makes more sense to me. The second one is going to be much longer.**

"Alisa, I swear, this is the most ridiculous scheme you've ever thought up..."

"Don't be such a baby! Once we get into my room, then you can change back to normal."

"What if someone recognizes me?"

"They're not going to recognize you, now let me put some make-up on your..."

"Get that shit away from my face!"

"Hold still damnit! Everyone's going to realize it's you if we don't disguise you better!"

"Fine, but be quick about it."

"Okay...there we go! Oh, wait a sec, I think I dropped something along the way in the woods. I'll be right back."

"God, Alisa, don't leave me alone like this!"

"Come on you big baby, it'll just a for a minute!"

* * *

"Why did Alisa want us to get a ladder?" Brandon asked Tyler around ten at night, walking together and holding a ladder, heading to the girls campus, their paths illuminated by the moonlight.

"How should I know? She just called and asked us to do this for her. All I know is that she owes us big time," Tyler responded, bringing the ladder up from the rear.

"Also, how did you get it? I don't remember seeing you leave to get it..."

"The janitor just leaves a ladder out by the cafeteria since Skylar is aways messing with the lights outside there. They still don't know it's him. We'll have it back before he notices it's gone missing."

"Right. Uh...where are we going?"

"Somewhere near the the girls campus entrance to the forest. Alisa can be so weird sometimes," Tyler complained as they were both walking into the forest. "Why can't she be more normal like Ken? She's a pretty normal girl compared to Alisa. Even Matt. He's a very level-headed guy. They're definitely more normal than her."

"Crap!" yelled a voice just a little deeper in the forest than where the two friends were.

"Did you hear that?" Brandon asked with some scepticism about it.

"Who couldn't?" retorted Tyler and dragged Brandon further into the woods. "Let's find Alisa so we can get this over with."

The deeper they had gone into the forest, the louder and more frequently they heard the cursing. And within a few minutes, they found the person making them, though Brandon and Tyler could not recognize the person shrouded in the dark.

"Do you think it's Alisa?" Brandon asked, dumbfounded by the sight.

"No, way too tall to be her, but I think it's a chick." Tyler jerked Brandon at the sleeve and motioned him to continue forward with the ladder. "Let's get a closer look."

Getting closer to the mysterious woman, the two were able to get a better, but still dark, look at her. She was very tall, a bit more than Alisa, long curly hair and wearing a girl's uniform, skirt and all.

"Why do I have to wear these damn heels?" she swore to herself, messing around with the high heels on her feet.

"She's kinda cute," Brandon started, keeping his eyes trained on the girl. "A little tall, but still..."

"She better than just 'kinda cute,'" Tyler retorted as he elbowed Brandon in the arm. "She's a lot better than some of the girls we see around here, that's what I think."

Slowly, Tyler began to creep forward even more towards the strange girl and Brandon followed in suit. As soon as Tyler was within hearing distance of her, he spoke.

"Hi there." Tyler began inching closer to her, but she hid her face and turned around. "There's no need to be shy."

"Yeah, it's alright," cooed Brandon and, he too, came closer, she, however, moved farther away.

"Hey." Tyler caught up with her and put one of his hands on her arm. She stopped walking away. "We were just wondering...see, we think you're kinda cute..."

"And we wanted to know if you were free any time soon." Brandon also caught up with them and stood on the other side of the girl.

"You want to ask me out?" she asked, her voice muffled by her hands.

"Yeah," the two boys chorused.

"Sorry, but I'm taken," she responded in a much deeper voice, pulling her hands away from her face.

"You know, you kinda sound like..." The girl brought one of her hands to her head and pulled off her hair, revealing short dark brown hair. "Holy crap, you're Matt."

"Nah, really?" he retorted, both boys stepped back a foot, trying to get out of Matt's range, but were unsuccessful. Matt quickly grabbed them both by the caller and smacked them up side the back of the head. "Sorry to burst your bubble, guys."

"Hehe, uh," Tyler started, trying desperately to make up an excuse. "We were just...testing you. Yeah, that's right! We were testing you! And I'm sorry to say, but you failed miserably." Tyler wagged his index finger at Matt in disappointment. "If some weird guy sees you and asks you out, you can't just take off your hair! That would blow it all!"

"So, was I that convincing?"

"Well... We came to test you. But to tell you the truth, I don't think you'll have any trouble getting past guys on this little adventure of yours." Tyler glanced up and down Matt once, then turned his face away to hide his embarrassment. "It is dark out here and we couldn't see you too well, so don't get you're hopes up."

"Right, I'll try not to be too disappointed if no one asks me to the Valentine's dance," Matt responded sarcastically and played with the wig in his hands as he calmed himself down. "I don't think we have to worry about running into anyone though, let alone guys since this is the girls campus. Plus, it's pretty late at night..."

"So you guys finally showed up?" questioned Alisa, now walking back to them after finding what she was looking for. "How hold still, Matt, so I can put on your lip stick."

A loud snickering came from behind. Matt turned around before Alisa got to him and saw that the two boys were the one who made the noise. The two tried their best to hold in their laughter, but were highly unsuccessful.

"Maybe not as level-headed as we thought," Tyler whispered to Brandon, turning him to face away from Matt.

"Um, Alisa, not for nothing, but do I really need that? Please say no." Matt started backing away from Alisa while she was advancing with the lip stick.

"Fine, have it your way. Just wear these then." Feeling defeated, Alisa put the lip stick back in her bag and pulled out a slim eye glass case. And out of the case, a pair of glasses and put them on Matt's face."There, don't break them."

"Are these yours glasses?" Matt asked as Alisa forcibly snatched the wig from his hand and tried to fix it back on his head.

"My eye sight went bad a few years back and I had to get glasses, but I always wore contacts. This is just my back-up pair. I hardly ever use them. I'm a little near-sighted, I can see just fine without lenses, just not all that great" she confessed and was able to redo the wig.

Presently, Matt looked down at Alisa in curiosity and pulled the glasses off his face to place them on Alisa. Again he stared at her, pondering, while Alisa stood there in astonishment, totally shocked by his action and sucked in her breath. Her heart pounded with haste, faster and faster, as she looked back at him, wondering what he could possibly be thinking.

"They look good," he finally remarked, Alisa, who had been holding her breath, sighed in relief. But still her heart raced at the compliment.

"You really think so? Well, not that you can really see in this darkness. I've never really liked wearing them and I've always insisted on having contacts." Calming down, Alisa carried on with the topic. "I mean, I'd probably never be caught dead with glasses, it's not really me -or er- my thing. I think it's weird, don't you think it's weird?"

"Why should I think that? I'm just saying, you don't have to wear them all the time or anything."

Alisa said nothing to this, but just blushed slightly, covered in the shroud of darkness. Gently, Matt pulled the glasses off of her face and placed them back on his, giving her a slight smile and trying to focus his eyes through the lenses.

"I don't have to wear these for too long, do I?"

"Of course not. Okay, so here's what we're going to do." Alisa look around for Tyler and Brandon, finding them a few yards away, still making jokes about the ordeal. "Would you two mind joining us?"

Trying desperately to maintain their laughter, Brandon and Tyler staggered up to them, their faces red with amusement.

"Okay, Matt and I are going to go to my room on the third floor, got that? Once he's done, I'm going to call you guys to bring up the ladder so that he can get out without being seen. Any questions?" Alisa scanned their area, no one responded, though Tyler did spring his hand up in the air and held the arm with his other hand like a little school kid. "What is it, Tyler?"

"Not that your plan isn't ingenious," he said sarcastically. Alisa stuck his tongue out at him in response. "But, why not just have Matt climb up the ladder to your room instead of having him dress up?"

"Because it would be suspicious if Alisa just walked out and back in for no apparent reason," Matt answered back in his masculine voice. Just hearing Matt talk like that in a girls uniform made Tyler want to start hysterically laughing again. "It's better if it looks like she went out to get someone."

"Yeah, ever since last year," Alisa started. "The counter girl has been getting pretty observant in who goes in and out. If she just saw me go out and back in alone, she'd start asking questions. We don't want that to happen, so that's why we're doing this. We dont' want to attract attention. The rules here have gotten a bit more strict since last year. Plus, Matt has a pretty good idea what he's looking for. There's one thing in general that I want him to look at though, otherwise I would go in myself. But if Ken's in there, I'm toast. If Matt got caught by her, she'd try to get him out as inconspicuously as possible. Got it you two?" she snapped at the two holding the ladder, they fervently nodded and sat down on the ground.

"Okay, let's go then," Matt called and began dragging Alisa by the arm out of the forest, leaving the others behind.

Matt kept leading Alisa to the campus, wanting nothing more than to get out of this torture as soon as possible, however the heels were hindering his attempts. While walking out of the forest as desperately as he possibly could and pulling Alisa, Matt lost his balance and toppled to the ground, bringing Alisa down with him.

"Shit." They made a loud thud as they made contact with the ground. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm. All. Right?" Alisa felt the cold on her back, but realized a system of warmth hovering just over her. Matt.

Alisa could feel her face go red with embarrassment and tried to slip her way out from under him. She, however, could not sense the same feelings emitting off of him, just concern.

"I'm really sorry about that," he added as he got up and offered a hand to help her up. "I lost my balance on these stupid shoes. Why the hell do you girls wear them? I've never worn such an uncomfortable pair of shoes as these in my life."

"Oh, um...it's alright." Alisa hesitated to find the words as she took his hand. In one easy tug, she was back up, feet on the ground, next to him. "We just wear them to look good is all. It's not like we do all the time. Well, you can take them off and change when we get to my room. I have you're change of clothes in my bag."

"I still don't understand why you wear them."

"Well, you don't need to," she snapped at him then withdrew. "I took me forever to find a pair that would fit your gigantic feet of yours, you know."

"Speaking of which, what's with these clothes?" Matt chuckled at her comment and tugged at the snug clothing, hating the way it clung to his body. "Couldn't get anything more comfortable?"

"Sorry Matt, but they don't have too many girls uniforms made for men!" Again she snapped and back-handed his arm. Again, Matt laughed heart-fully at her response and, again, Alisa secretly blushed and turned her face away from his. "Besides, it was all they had that could possibly fit you...be grateful for even that."

"I'm not completely sure how to respond to that." His laugh died down to a chuckle. "Whether or not I should be grateful that I'm wearing girl's clothing... All and all, I don't think this is something I should be too proud of. Tyler and Brandon seemed to be pretty psyched about it which was extremely creepy." It was Alisa's turn to laugh. She desperately tried to contain the giggles hiccuping out of her. "Of course, I'll probably never do this again. I don't think I've ever dressed up as a woman before, not even when I was little."

"Wouldn't you know?"

"Can't remember everything!" he retorted with his contagious smile making Alisa burn red in the face.

The two remained quiet after a few more minutes of walking out of the forest, not an awkward silence, but for Alisa, slightly uncomfortable. A question had been smoldering inside her head and figured that now would be a good time to ask.

"Matt," she started, embarrassed by the question she was about to ask, but spat it out with her usual confidence. "You love her, right?"

"Ken? Of course I do, more than anything." The air around them became tense with the answer. Matt had never thought about his true feelings for Kendra up-til this point. He always knew he loved her, but what was the extent of this feeling? How far could they possibly go with this assuming Kendra even felt the same. What if she didn't? What would happen to them? "But, this is hard for me to say sense I've never really loved anyone like this before..."

"Well, you better after all the trouble you put me through." Alisa just smiled back at him jokingly and trugged on, linking an arm with him on the way.

* * *

The two cautiously walked into the girls dorm and glanced at the receptionist reading a magazine and sitting at her desk.

The sound of their feet clacking against the marble floor echoed across the room and to the receptionist, forcing her eyes to glance up at the kids above her magazine. Seeing nothing too peculiar about the girls, however feeling a little suspicious about the blond with the bag, went back to her magazine and paid no other attention to them.

Once getting into the elevator, both sighed in relief as the doors closed on them after Alisa pressed the button for their floor. Soft elevator music rang through the small, claustrophobic prison making Alisa close her eyes shut and suck in her breath. The seconds seeming to grow longer and longer through each beat of the tune.

"What's you're problem? Can't be the fact that you're sneaking a guy into the girls dorms or anything as superfluous as that." Matt ran through his statement, shooting her a hesitant smile after his subtle joke.

"Elevators make me nervous," she sped through in a single breath then went back to concentrate on being somewhere other than in the constricting elevator.

Alisa's hands had been clenching the railing on the elevator wall, her knuckles turning white from loss of blood flow. The feeling in her hands and arms were cold, numb, uncomfortable, yet she wouldn't be able to unlock them till those metal doors opened to her floor. Every time she came on the elevator, any elevator, the result was the same.

She felt a difference for just a second, though. A warm energy stuck to her arm, sending slight shivers up her spine. It was comforting, unfamiliar, but at the same time she recognized Matt's touch.

His hand rubbed gently up and down her fore-arm and pried the hand off the railing and patted it in his. The smile he bore on his face was kind, caring, if somewhat humorous. Nothing but his friendship and concern emitting off of him.

"Not exactly best that you're on the third floor then, is it? Maybe you should take the stairs?" Matt's toothy grin took over Alisa's attention, forcing a smile onto her face as well.

The ding of the stopping elevator rung in the tiny room, the doors slowly pulling apart revealing the hallway filled with doors to the different rooms. Matt quickly released her hand and strode to the doorway and kept the doors from sliding back. Alisa, however, was taken aback by his gesture. Was he waiting for her to lead the way? Or for her to get out of the elevator so she wouldn't be trapped in there again?

Matt reached out his hand and motioned it across his body to point to the hallway.

Definitely the first option.

Once being able to unclench her other hand from the railing, Alisa lead Matt down the hallway, passing a few unsuspecting classmates, and brought him to the room.

"These are some nice rooms you girls have here," Matt commented once Alisa closed the door behind him and casually strode up to his side. Once realizing her presence there, he carefully removed the glasses from his face, giving them back to their rightful owner, and grabbed the bag containing his normal clothes from Alisa.

"Now, I don't know if Kendra is in there or not, she's probably out though, but if she is..." Alisa trailed on and turned her attention to Matt who was presently removing his disguise. "What the hell are you doing?!"

"What?" Matt asked, not understanding her outburst as he threw jacket to the floor along with the wig. "I'm listening."

"No, not that!" The outburst kept coming as he continued to remove clothing. "You could spare to take a trip to the bathroom and change in there and not in front of me!"

Matt hesitated for a moment to stare at her after half pulling down the skirt. "You don't have to watch. Though, you didn't seem to mind in the forest."

"I could barely see you then!"

Silence engulfed the room as she stared back at him. A smile from ear to ear forming on his already grinning face. His expression was easy to evaluate: humorous yet somewhat surprised, not at all embarrassed. It was obvious he could see the answer, causing him to chuckle uncontrollably and shake his head as he slowly pulled down the skirt the rest of the way.

"Shameless," Alisa muttered, recovering from her slight moment of complete embarrassment and cocking her head away as to direct her sight away from him stripping from his disguise. She could, however, still partially see him from her peripheral vision which was more than enough.

Again, time seemed to slow down to the speed of a slug in Alisa's mind.

As if in slow motion, Matt lifted the shirt over his head revealing the rest of his torso. His sharp features capturing Alisa's attention in this one motion. The developing muscle in all of the right places, giving him the features of a top notch soccer player, no David Beckham, but better than most. And there was still so much room and time for growth, so much room for more development of those fabulous muscles.

"Weren't you going to tell me something?" Matt asked, now putting on his normal clothes. Noticing she had not finished when he started stripping of his costume, now seemed like a better time to bring it up.

Snapping out of her temporary paralysis, her eyes focused fully on Matt who was now covering himself up again.

"Excuse me?"

"You were saying if Ken is actually in her room..." he started, wanting her to finish the statement.

"Oh, yeah. If she's in there, get back here as fast as you possibly can. It doesn't matter if she wouldn't get mad or she would try to get you out, it's best to just steer away from that situation."

"Got it, Alisa. I'll try to make this as quick as possible." Matt strode over to the door connecting the girl's rooms and stopped at the doorknob. "Top drawer of the nightstand, right?"

"Matt," Alisa whined, making a grab for Matt's nearest arm. "Make sure you be careful and remember what I said, okay?"

"I'll be fine," he assured, slowly opening the door as to not make a sound, and slipped through the crack he had made, closing the door behind him.

Inside Kendra's room was just like Alisa's only with light differences. Furniture seemed to have been moved around slightly, the desk was much more cluttered, and on it was their picture. How he loved that picture, it was all he got to see of his Kendra these days...Back to business, he thought, and walked over to the bedroom door entrance.

"Matt?" Kendra's tired voice cooed to Matt, paralyzing him right in his tracks. No going back now.

* * *

**Well, this one took me long enough. I've been so busy lately...not a lot of time to work on this at all. What in the world will happen to Matt I wonder? How will Kendra take this? And what the heck is going on with Alisa? I know, but you don't, so HA! Just kidding! Stay tuned to find out!**


	14. Monkeys and Bookmarks

**Alright, new chapter. After this part of the story, the chapters might go a little faster. It really depends, it's just because I'm rewriting everything. I digress, back to the story.**

"Matt," Kendra called again, her voice was quiet, unsurprised.

Being caught and feeling defeat, Matt surrendered, putting his hands up in front of his body in defense, stared down at the ground in shame, and tried to explain his story.

"Ken, I know this looks weird and that I shouldn't be here, but I can totally explain."

Matt waited for a response from Kendra, bracing himself for a yell, a slap in the face, anything she would do.

Nothing.

No yelling.

No slap in the face.

No anything.

Just a whole lot of nothing.

Cautiously, Matt lifted his head to look over at her, wondering why she had not replied. She was there on the bed, soundly sleeping on her back and apparently talking in her sleep.

See seemed so peaceful, lying on her bed, her face turned to the opposite direction of Matt. A light blue blanket perched on the bottom edge of the bed. Her left arm delicately slung over her body, the hand attached to an open book. Fell asleep while reading Matt figured. Her face looked no different than usual. Calm, unfathomable, beautiful.

After staring at her motionless form for a while, she spoke his name again in a mumbled tone and he wondered what she could possibly be dreaming about that included him. Matt cautiously ambled over to the nightstand as to not wake up sleeping beauty, and as quietly as he could, opened the top drawer of it.

Inside laid many various objects: flashlight, notebook, a few pens of different colors, her cell phone charger, and at the very bottom, was the distinct back of a photo. The photo Alisa had mentioned.

Matt's heart skipped a beat after seeing it. Could a simple thing such as this picture really tell him what Kendra had been hiding from him this whole time? One could only hope.

The temptation was killing him. Matt's hand slowly reached for the picture and then stopped suddenly once the tip of his finger touched it. Now, of all times, he started having second thoughts.

Maybe she would just come out and tell them what was going on, but being as stubborn as she was, that would probably never happen. He understood that far too perfectly. She'd keep this secret of hers to the grave if she could.

No, it's probably best to just find out right now. She would never tell and it would haunt Matt's thoughts for as long as the two of them would stay in contact. Besides, this picture might not even give anything away. It could just be some ordinary picture of her past: old friends, family, new house, anything.

With that now on his mind, Matt quickly grabbed the picture from the drawer and held it in his hand, the picture side down. He started at the back now intent on looking, sure that this one picture wouldn't tell him anything about what he wanted to know, and flipped it over.

Matt's mind went totally blank at the sight of the photo, but at the same time it made perfect sense. All he could do was stare and smile at the picture, nothing more.

"Matt," Kendra said again. "Put it down."

'Oh crap,' he thought and put the picture down on the floor.

"Please, Matt," she mumbled again. "Put down the monkey."

"Monkey?" whispered Matt, completely confused by what she said and relieved that she had not woken up.

"Good boy." Kendra unconsciously rolled to her left side and snuggled back into her pillow, her body facing Matt. He slowly grabbed the photo, put it in his pants pocket, and got up to his feet, just gazing at the wonderful girl sleeping on the bed, the book open face on the bed behind her back.

Silently, Matt reached over her and grabbed the book, keeping her page, and accidentally brushed her hip. Out of pure fear, Matt recoiled back to his standing position in a split second, grasping to the book for dear life.

She didn't wake.

Matt hesitantly put the book on top of the nightstand and having found the book mark she was using, saved her page.

Kendra looked so exposed to Matt. Just wearing a light pink tank top and a pair of faded short shorts. Were these her pajamas? It would make sense if they were, it was late. He just figured, this wasn't the kind of thing to be wearing outside in January. Matt just noticed more suitable clothes thrown on the ground in front of her bed. Probably changed as soon as she got to her room.

Without another thought, Matt unfolded the blanket at the edge of the bed and carefully covered his sleeping beauty with it and pulled it up over her shoulders.

He felt such a huge temptation to lean in and give her a kiss good night. The feeling flowing through him like a waterfall, but refrained himself against the notion. Best not to risk the experiment in seeing if she was just like the sleeping beauty in the fairytale.

He quickly made his escape from the room and slid into Alisa's and just as quick as he had gotten in, Alisa bombarded him with interrogating questions.

"What she in there?" Alisa pushed him to the wall, staring up at his eyes, a terrifying look covered her face like a mask.

"...yes." Matt had to gather up the courage to answer that question truthfully with the look she bore. He knew he was in trouble, she specifically told him to come straight out if she was there.

"What did I tell you?" Her scary face turned even more terrifying in this one question. Her burning eyes melted deep into Matt's skull.

"I know, I know," Matt assured in a hushed tone, trying desperately to calm her down. Her arms started banging on his chest, apparently trying to hurt him. Like twigs to a brick wall.

"What was she doing? Taking a shower? You pervert!"

"Alisa, I think you know me a little better then that..."

"Yeah, that's what they all say before they eye-rape your best friend!"

"That's sick." Getting annoyed with Alisa's attempts to hurt him, grabbed both her hands and pulled them to her side. "Besides, she wasn't taking a shower, she was asleep on her bed. I'm pretty sure I didn't wake her up..."

"Ew, that's even worse!" she screamed in his face. Horrifying visions of the statement started popping into her head. "It's like you're taking advantage of her in her sleep!"

"Alisa, I assure you, I did nothing to Ken. I can't even think of a good reason for wanting to..."

Alisa arms went limp as she shooting him a "really?" stare, knowing the truth of how he felt about Kendra.

"Okay, I see your point," he admitted, giving into her and still in the whispered voice. "But under no circumstance would I ever want to violate her in her sleep or when she's awake, not even if she really wanted me to. Hey, I have to have some morals. I would never want to do something to hurt Kendra in any way, and you know that. You know I love her, so don't even kid about me doing anything as disturbing as that."

"I know..."

"Alisa?"

Both shut their mouths and stared blankly at the door next to them, their hearts pounding a mile a minute against their chests. Had they really been that loud?

"Alisa? Can I speak with you for a little bit?"

"Um, sure," Alisa answered a little troubled and turned to Matt whispering to him, "Get in the closet."

He quietly did as he was told and hid in the dark little room opposite from the door connecting the two rooms.

Once he was out of sight, Alisa opened the door a crack, peeked through, and invited Kendra in.

"Uh, what's up?"

"Were you in my room earlier?"

"No, no, of course not," said Alisa, trying to act innocent. "Why?"

"Well," Kendra started, rubbing her eyes of sleep. "I think I fell asleep when I was reading. And when I woke up, there was a blanket over me and my book was bookmarked on the page I was on and put on my nightstand. It's so weird..."

"Hehe, yeah, weird. Must have subconsciously done that, I guess. I wouldn't know." Alisa tried desperately to sound convincing, to steer Kendra away from the truth. Tried too hard. She was far too nervous what with a boy in her closet and her best friend bound to notice. Luckily, Kendra was way too tired to really notice anything, even Alisa's blatant lies.

"Yeah," Kendra sighed with another rub in the eye. "Yeah, I guess you're right. Hmmmmmm, what's that?"

"What's what?" Alisa panicked as she swung her body over towards the closet, seeing if Matt had somehow become visible.

"That, on the floor..." Kendra pointed to the bag Matt had used to keep his normal clothes in and now, store his disguise, which was now out in the open.

"Oh, that's just my bag and oh crap..."

"Why is there a uniform in that bag?"

"Oh, that's just my...my back-up uniform I keep in that bag, you know, just in case?"

"Oh, yeah, that makes sense...what's it doing on the floor like that?"

"Um, there was an...earthquake, just a few minutes ago..."

"Earthquake?" Kendra still rubbed her eyes in her sleepiness and began to sway slightly from trying to remember.

"Yeah, yeah, very small earthquake, hardly noticeable. Doubt anyone felt it. But, yeah, my bag fell from the couch. It's nothing to worry about." The lies kept rolling off her tongue, soothing Kendra's nerves.

"Oh, okay, then," Kendra said with a yawn and leaned on the doorway, about ready to collapse from fatigue. "Thank you, Lis. Sorry to bother you so late at night."

"Ken, it's alright." Alisa cooed and pulled Kendra up from the doorway to a standing possition. "You should definitely go to bed. You look like you're about to fall asleep standing up. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah, good night, Alisa," Kendra said quietly and walked off, closing the door behind her.

Once Alisa was sure Kendra was back in her bedroom, she stomped over to the closet and, with both hands, forcibly pulled Matt from his sitting position to his knees by colar of his shirt.

"What were you thinking by covering her?" Alisa yell whispered at him. Her hand trembled from anger.

"Did you see what she was wearing?" he answered back in the same tone.

"Unlike you, I wasn't gawking at her body!"

"Well, what you should have noticed, she's not exactly wearing something suitable for this kind of weather. She could have gotten a cold if I hadn't covered her. You probably would have done the same."

"Also, you moved her book! Obvious much that someone was in there? You're so lucky she's half asleep! I hope that I never have to lie to her like that again! She's not going to remember anyway, but still."

"I think you should call Tyler, tell him we're ready for him..."

"So, you did see the picture? Did you find anything else?" Her tone noticeably quieter and calmer.

"Yes, I did see the picture and no, I didn't find anything else."

"...did the picture, you know, explain anything?"

"No." Matt lied quite convincingly, keeping a straight, solemn face. "I couldn't recognize anyone in the photo."

"Well," Alisa started as she flipped out her cell phone and called Tyler. "This was a huge waste of time."

**Alright, new chapter. I went through this one kinda quick, but whatever. If any of you are wondering, this was suppose to be a fanfic of Yu-gi-oh GX. Don't ask me, it was a dream I had. A lot of the characters in this are from that anime, but with different names. Brandon is like Jayden except a bit slower; Alisa, Alexis; Tyler like Cyrus except he gets mouthy later on. Chad, Chazz, rather obvious. Then Fraser is sort of Kaiba, sort of. Little different. Then some characters are definitely my own, like Matt and Ken. The reason I didn't put this in the Yu-gi-oh GX section is because it becomes totally irrelivant to that topic later on. I'm sure it is like some other manga/anime out there that I don't know about. Oh well. I think I'll live. I guess I could always make a copy and put it under that manga...idk, it's just the second part that's totally different.**


	15. The End of the Beginning

**Newness! Okay, this is getting old fast. So close to the end of this part of the story! Just another chapter or two after this! It really depends….well, on with the chapter. If any of you have questions or comments, please review. Hey, review for the heck of it! Please and thank you! And just to let you all know, I changed Fraser's first name to Sean. Just to let you all know. I thought it worked better for him, plus it starts with an S...yeah.**

During the next few days, Matt tried his best to keep a good distance from Kendra. Not talking, not waiting for her after classes, leaving without a word, totally afraid that she would bring up that night with him. Though he was sure that Ken wouldn't interrogate him, Matt didn't want to have to lie to her. Matt wasn't at all sure if he could keep that from her, let alone tell her a simple lie.

"You know, Kendra doesn't seem to remember so much about it anymore," Alisa noted days after the incident after school. "You could talk to her a little bit..."

"I don't care. Knowing her, she's just keeping it on the down-low. She seems to do that with a lot of things these days." Matt trailed off in the thought. Just how much had she been hiding from him? This was one thing, just one things out of he was sure thousands. All of this could be a cover-up: her coming here, the relationships she'd made, what she shared with Matt.

His silence bothered Alisa and elbowed him in the side to catch his attention.

"I just..." Matt quickly cleared his throat and pressed on. "I just feel a little let-down by all this. I'm not quite ready to talk to her just yet."

"Matt, what happened to you in there?" Alisa put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. She gave him a bit of a shove on the same shoulder to get him to face her. "You've been acting so weird these past few days, so something must have happened..."

"Nothing happened to me in there." Matt stiffened at the remark and locked his lower jaw.

"You're such a liar. You do that thing with your jaw when you lie. I know you way too well not to have noticed after all these years," Alisa whispered angrily at him, jabbing an extended finger into Matt's chest. The two glowered at each other, both pursing their lips in frustration. "You're going to tell me eventually."

"Don't count on it," Matt retorted with his teeth clenched, not intimidated by her threat then then nonchelanly walked off with hands in pockets. "See you later."

"You're lucky Kelsea isn't here with you," she called after him, more agitated than ever at him.

"You do know me way too well."

* * *

It was announced that Fraser was scheduled to leave the campus that morning and Matt hoped he would take all this turmoil with him. Alisa refused to let go of what Matt had seen the other day. Constantly urging him to spill his guts out to her. Not going to happen. Kendra seemed to become even more distant from her friends with each passing day. Even worse, Matt and Kendra's relationship had started to strain by the feeling of it. Absolutely no communication between the two of them was putting a toll on what they had. If this kept up, soon it would break at the seams and there would be no stopping it after that. But now with Fraser gone, everything would change for the better.

Hopefully that is.

Hopefully.

* * *

"Miss Kaiser, may I speak with you before you leave?" Mr. Danner asked Kendra as she walked past his desk on the way out. It was the last bell of the last day of the week and everyone was anxious to get out and start their weekend, especially Kendra.

"Of course, sir."

"Privately," he added, spotting Matt eyeing Kendra and taking his sweet time putting his stuff away. "Please, Mr. Folks."

"Alright." Reluctantly, Matt shoved everything into his backpack and stood next to his girl, searching for her eyes though her thick shroud of red hair. "I'll see you later."

"Yeah," she sighed, totally concealing her face from him. "See you."

Matt starer longingly at her for one long second and hesitantly strode off out the door, staying close to wait for her.

Once he was sure Matt was out of hearing distance, Danner commenced the conversation.

"There was an accident." Danner's face grew solemn as he said those words and his voice was dead.

"What do you mean?" she asked in distress though she understood what he meant. Her eyes grew wide with realization.

"I received a call before class started and was ordered to tell you after class--"

"Please don't beat around the bush Mr. Danner. What happened?" Her tone near panicky and on the verge of crying.

"There was a plane crash."

Kendra nearly fell back in shock, her breathing becoming staggered, almost hyperventilating. Her face drained of all color and eyes burning from newly formed tears.

"Now, it's not as bad as you think. He's alright. Just a few broken bones. The pilot didn't make it however..."

Unable to stay on her feet, Kendra fell into the nearest desk and slumped over trying to hide her face.

"Can I see him?" Was all she could muster to say, her voice terribly troubled and horse.

"No one would dare stop you."

Slowly, Kendra got up from the desk, held onto the edge for support for a quick second, thanked the teacher, and walked out of the room. She desperately tried to keep her composure once she saw Matt waiting for her in the hallway and kept going on her way. Matt, however, had no intention on letting her leave alone and caught up to her, slinging the backpack over his shoulder.

"Ken, are you alright?" he asked, reaching out to her left arm.

"Matt, please," she whispered in the lonely hallway and shrugged him off.

"Kendra." His voice was firm and sure as his hand locked onto her shoulder and pulled her around. "I'm tired of playing this game with you. I know a lot more than you think I do."

Without warning, Kendra slipped out of his vice-grip, slammed him against the lockers, and pinned him there with one arm across his chest in a single swift movement. One of the locker tumblers dug into his shoulder blade hard making him wonder just how strong this petite girl really was.

"Could you ease up a bit? I'll be bruising from this alone in the morning."

Her classic unreadable eyes stared into his as if trying desperately to read his mind, just to see what exactly he knew. Kendra, having given up on her futile attempts, loosened up on her chest a little, but still held him securely to the lockers.

"What do you know?" she whispered through clenched teeth, her eyes still locked on his.

Matt hesitated for a few moments then brought his voice down so only Kendra could possibly hear. "He's your dad."

Without a word, Kendra grasped the collar of Matt's shirt and forcibly pulled him down the hallway and into some unknown room to him, locking the door behind her. One look in the room however, and he knew exactly where he was. White tile floors, mirrors hanging on one side of the room, the distinct smell of and soap.

"Did you just bring me in the girls' bathroom?" he screeched through a whisper.

"You don't have to whisper anymore, Matt."

"Why did you bring me here? This is probably one of the most forbidden of all places in the mind of men--"

"You were sort of right."

"What do you mean by 'sort of?'"

She didn't answer for several seconds, trying to analyze her exact words to try to minimize any possible confusion.

"He's actually my uncle."

"Huh?" he gaped, wondering how he could have gotten that wrong.

"Biologically he's my uncle, but legally he is my dad."

"Care to explain?" Once she nodded, Matt looked for a decent place to sit on the floor against the wall, anticipating a long story. Kendra, too, sat down at an angle to look at him straight in the eye and started off her story with a deep breath.

"My dad now is my real dad's older brother and my mom now is my real mom's older sister. My now parents got married when my real parents were still pretty young, dad was 18 or something; mom, 16. That's where my real parents met. One thing led to another and my real mom got pregnant. She left as soon as I was born. I don't know much about her other than that.

"My parents offered my real dad to move in with them so that they could all raise me together. Then my dad fell ill when I was 4 years old and didn't see a doctor like he should have. Thought he was fine. He died of terminal cancer a few months after he got sick. He was only 23 years old and I don't remember much about him. Just the end. He was a very kind and strong man. I miss what little I knew of him and loved him very much.

"My parent's automatically took me in. They love me very much you know, as if I were their own child. They never had any of their own, but they are more than content with just me. It's a very good thing I look so much like them, other wise we might not be able to pull it off. And that's why you can't tell anyone about this, not even Alisa, Brandon, or Tyler. The only one's who know about this are you, me, my family, and my real mom. Even the teachers and Dean Chow don't know the real story. I suppose the others will find out eventually, but at least keep the whole truth from them. Alisa, Tyler, nor Brandon need to know it all.

"Matt, please, I'm begging you not to tell anyone. Don't even tell anyone that I'm Fraser's daughter. If any of this were to be open to the public, my life would be like Paris Hilton's. It happened once when I was really little, but we managed to escape from that. Just please." Her tone turned to pleading as she literally got on her knees and begged. The cold of the floor tiles against her bare knees made her shiver.

"Ken, I would never tell anyone," Matt answered slowly to make sure that his word got through to Kendra and inched up closer to her. "You know I wouldn't."

Kendra shifted back into her original spot on the floor as he made his advance and started off into the opposite direction as him. Getting the point, he too sat back on the floor and stared anxiously at her, feeling like this was the first time he had ever seen the girl in front of him. Such an amazing girl to say the least, such a troubled childhood. Never knowing her true mother, her dad leaving her at such a young age, pretty much the only thing she remembered of him was the end of his life. Such a strong girl, just one of the many things he admired so much about her.

"Do you know what their names were?"

"Mitchell and Maralise. Here." Kendra searched her skirt pocket, taking out her wallet, and rummaging in it for something and pulled out a slip of paper.

"What is it?" Matt hesitantly reached out for the slip, trying to find the answer in her face.

"Just look."

Matt slowly took the paper from her slender hand without taking his eyes off of hers and flickered down to it. Another picture of the little red head girl that used to be Kendra happily grinning into the camera and in the arms of one unfamiliar thick black haired man. He too was showing a wide toothy grin as he lovingly held his little daughter close to his chest. Kendra had none her father's features. She must have greatly taken after her mother's side of the family and received her uncle's eyes. The one thing the two of them had in common, though, was the huge, perfect smile. The smile her father had then, and the smile she has now.

"You have his smile."

"How did you know?" she asked after a few moments of silence. Her tone was once again very serious and somewhat afraid to learn the answer.

"Kendra, this is going to seem bad, but I was in your room." Matt ran through the statement in embarrassment, seriously hoping she wouldn't be able to understand him. To his dismay, she did.

"You what!?" Kendra screeched and jolted up, grabbing Matt by the collar again the lifting him up to his feet.

"Okay, you are a petite girl, how is it that you're so strong?" He questioned defensively, shooting his hands up in amnesty.

"You have to be strong to be a black belt in karate."

_That would explain a lot..._ Matt thought as he reached for the picture he took of the same little girl with her to-be parents and showed it to Kendra.

"I snuck into your room while you were sleeping and found this."

In a blink, Kendra had let go of Matt's shirt and was facing her back to him, inspecting the photo.

"How did you--?" She turned around suddenly, looked at his face, and automatically realized the answer. "Alisa. I knew I wasn't going crazy that night. Only a handful of people would have marked my book and covered me. I should have figured before..."

"Ken--"

"What did you think gave you the right to waltz into my room and take this?" she interrogated, all of a sudden furious.

"Well, if you hadn't kept this from us, we wouldn't have worried so much and gone and done something as stupid as we did."

"Are you seriously trying to put this on me?" Both of them were past just angry, yelling in each others faces. "The reason I didn't tell any of you is because you didn't need to know. I knew my constant leaving would strike to you all as weird, but my dad and the dean wanted to speak with me on a daily basic practically and I knew you all would want to know about it. That's why I've been dreading this all this time, just waiting for the day he would leave so that we could get back to our lives."

"Oh sure, out of sight out of mind."

"You would have given up eventually."

"No I wouldn't of. I want to know every little thing about you and I will never stop till I do because you're my girlfriend and I love you."

"Not anymore!"

Silence enveloped the room, an awkward silence leaving the two teens staring at each other in disbelief of what the other said.

"Matt, I'm done," she pressed on, holding back the tears. "If you can't trust me the way you should...then I see no reason for us to be together any longer."

"Ken--"

"Save it. I don't want to hear it. I can't take your paranoia anymore."

"I'm paranoid because I love you," Matt retorted, persistent to get it through her thick skull.

"No, Matt, no more. I'm ending this, it's too much. I'm going to see my dad." Kendra began to stalk off to the door, but was slung into Matt's arms.

"Kendra, don't you understand?" he he huffed through his teeth, his brows furrowed in frustration, and kissed her hard on her mouth, pulling her tightly into his body. Kendra found no strength to push him away, but just entwined around his neck and went with the flow.

Her conscience began to knaw at the back of her mind after a moment, telling her to stop before it went to far. She listened. Kendra forcibly placed her palms on Matt's chest and pushed him away; him craning his head forward for more.

"Matt, please," Kendra cried inches from his face and unwrapped his arms from around her to get away. "I can't anymore. I just--"

Kendra jolted away from him and ran out the door, leaving him awestruck and heart-broken in a girl's bathroom. For several long and devistating minutes, Matt just stood in the center of the room, staring at the door, hoping she would come back.

Come back to him. His arms would be open; his heart, mended. Just to know that she had made a terrible mistake and wanted him back.

She never came back, and she never would.

* * *

Everyone fell in shock at the news, not knowing whether to be grateful that two of the most attractive people in school were appart or that distressed that the most adored couple had split. Either way, those most affected by the news were the best friends. Neither Alisa, Tyler, nor Brandon could believe it had actually happened. Such a wonderful couple, down the drain.

Once Fraser felt comfortable enough to leave, a new pilot was hired and a jet scheduled. Just days after the crash. His "daughter" was by his side the whole time in between, spending every possible moment with him and away from Matt.

The trio's attempts at reconsiling the two were futile. As much as Matt wanted them together again, Kendra would not hear a word of it.

Their relationship as friends was repaired swiftly, though quite awkward in the beginning, both teens put their past behind them and moved on, waiting for the day this all could be forgotten.

That day would never come.

* * *

**Oh my gosh, I can't believe I finished it in this one chapter. WOW. Sorry it took so long to complete just this one chapter, but I've been really busy with summer work and school. Bleh. Anyway, not exactly what you expected, right? Didn't think so. Anyway, I know the end of this chapter is totally depressing, but it's not the end! There will be a new story posted up soon hopefully with the title Discovered Again. Not sure if I'm going to have the original title in there or not, just look for either the new or the old one. OK, that's all I have for right now! I really hope you enjoyed this story as much as I've enjoyed creating it and I also hope that you all look into the new one!**


	16. Author's Note

**AUTHOR'S NOTE!!**

Let it be known that the story is not over!! This is just the beginning. A new story will be posted hopefully soon under the title **Forgotten Love 2: Discovered Again**. I think it's rather obvious what happens in the new story just by the title. I am currently working on the first chapter of the new story, so I hope it will be done within the week. Please do not be disappointed by the ending of this part and don't take it out on me lol. That's just how it goes for now, but trust me, it will get better.


	17. Teaser to sequel sorta

**Here is a teaser of the sequel. Well.....it's the first chapter lol. The new story is called Forgotten Love 2: Discoved Again** **for those of you who wish to continue reading. Please do lol. Thank you to all of you who have stayed with me through this whole story and who have enjoyed it. I hope to hear from you soon!**

**Forgotten Love 2, Chapter 1**

Kendra Kaiser, or known now as Kendra Fraser, an attractive and intelligent girl living an uncommon life. Being the "daughter" of the famous duel equipment designer, Sean Fraser, everything was hectic. Aside from her hidden glamorous life, things were difficult under the surface. Fraser was not her actual father, but in fact her uncle. Her true mother and father met at their older siblings' wedding. Both became infatuated with the other and shortly after, became pregnant. Kendra's mother left her and her father right after she was born, never to be heard from again.

Kendra's father, Mitchell, was not alone however. He had the help of his older brother and wife to help out with the new baby, who automatically fell in love with her. And when her father died of a severe illness when she was still very little, her aunt and uncle didn't hesitate to take her in as their own.

Very few people know the truth to her past, even her best friends. They only know the censored version of the truth where as one knows more than he bargained for.

The one that knows the whole past, Matt, regrets ever trying to learn more about her, but is glad that she confided in him. He and Kendra have many things in common such as kindness, intelligence, good looks. They were quick friends in the beginning and even faster in becoming something more. But when their relationship ended, it turned heads. All because Matt became a little too curious about Kendra's life. Just one thing ended it all.

Four years had passed since their first meeting and over two since the break-up. Graduation brought new hopes for their future, all of theirs. Alisa, Tyler, and Brandon had all terribly hoped that Kendra and Matt could possibly have gotten back together before graduation, before they had all gone their separate paths. Both resisted any form of help. Kendra, being the stubborn person she is, had made up her mind and did not intend on changing it. And Matt respected how she felt, no matter how much he wanted to get back together with her, no matter how much he loved her.

* * *

"Come on, Alisa. At this rate, we won't get there till next year," Matt jokingly nagged her as she got everything ready for their trip.

Over the years, Matt's good looks became more enhanced. His facial features had become more sharp, chiseled. He must have grown another six inches since freshman year and his short hair had grown down past his ears, slightly shrouding his eyes. Everyone who knew him before had always known him to cut his hair short.

For the five friends, this day was a one of a kind. August 13, Kendra's eighteenth birthday. Alisa, Matt, Brandon, and Tyler had been planning on surprising this day since before graduation and some had more in store than originally planned.

"Oh haha, aren't you funny? Keep your pants on, I'm almost done," Alisa snorted, putting a brightly colored box into her bag.

For the strangest reason, Alisa's long and beautiful blond hair that once reached down to her lower back now was chin length and slightly highlighted with light brown. Matt figured he would figure out later and didn't ask.

"Okay, one question, why would I take my pants off for you? I'm sorry, but it's not going to happen any time soon." A widely smiling Matt chuckled at Alisa's expression and began twirling his key ring around his finger, sighing slightly. "I really hope your mom didn't hear that."

"It's okay, she didn't." A small, jangly blond boy appeared next to Matt out of nowhere.

"Hey Eric. Haven't seen you in years. How long has it been?" Matt and Eric did some foreign hand shake to Alisa, making her want to barf.

"Long time, couple years. How've you been dude?"

"Eric, I don't care how chummy you guys are, get out of my room!"

"Alisa, technically, I'm not in your room," Eric commented, grinning maliciously at his older sister and stuck one foot in and out of the doorway. "Now I am. Now I'm not. Now I am, and now I'm not. In out in out in out in out in out."

"Get out you little--!"

"Alisa, Eric, be nice to each other you two," Mrs. Marshall called through the house, knowing they would hear her.

"Yes Mom," the siblings chorused, making silly faces at each other afterwords.

"Okay, I'm done," Alisa stated and walked up to Matt's side, flicking Eric on the forehead.

"Did you just flick me?!"

"Just a reminder. Stay out of my room!"

* * *

After getting Alisa from her place, they left to get Brandon, then Tyler. Both seemed eager to get Kendra's place. Even before the two got in the car, Alisa was interrogating Matt on why he was so close to her brother. Matt was having some trouble getting the car started, but after several turns of the key, the car finally roared to life. He really tried avoiding upsetting her.

"Stupid car..." Matt muttered.

"I never thought that a person like you would be so friendly with a creature like him."

"What? Your brother really isn't such a bad guy. You guys are just always fighting."

"Well, he started it."

"Not from where I was standing."

"Alright, changing subject," Brandon cut-in, not enjoying the current subject. "So it's really Ken's birthday?"

"Yeah," Alisa snorted, wondering why he would ask that question after being friends with her for so long.

"Cool, so, how old is she?"

"What do you think?" Tyler snapped in his face, both in the back seat. All eyes in the car gave in a worried glance.

"Oh yeah, eighteen, huh?"

"Yeah, she's a month older than you."

"Sorry, forgot."

"Did you forget your name on the way, too?"

"Stop fighting you two!" Matt yelled at the two, silencing them immediately. "I will not allow fighting in my junk heap of a car."

"Oh, you would know all about fighting, wouldn't you, Matt?" Alisa challenged, still sour about him and her annoyance of a brother being pals.

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"From what I've heard, not that I've heard much mind you." Alisa glared at him as if telling Matt to tell her every little aspect of his life. "You, Chad, and his little goonies got into a pretty good fist fight."

"That was a long time ago."

"What was it about?"

"I'd rather not talk about it!" Matt ended the argument suddenly, realizing his hypocrisy.

"I thought there was no fighting?" Tyler shied, leaning forward and back into his seat.

"Lis, I'm sorry for snapping at you. It's just a touchy subject."

"Nah, I provoked you."

"Okay, if you guys are done apologizing to each other, it would be nice if Matt payed attention to the road before he kills us all," Tyler added nonchalantly, eying the road with caution.

"Oh yes, that would be nice." Matt redirected his focus back on the freeway infront of him and remained silent.

"I've been wondering..." Brandon started, trailing off slightly from distraction. He spotted a road sign stating their next exit wasn't for several more miles. "What time is it?"

"Uh..." Tyler responded, lifting up his sleeve to read his watch. "7:30."

"This seems late, doesn't it? I always thought Ken got up early in the morning. I thought you two wanted to catch her before she woke up."

"She always sleeps in on Saturdays," Alisa answered in a "matter-of-fact" way. "Weekdays and Sundays are early. Saturdays are late. Usually doesn't get up till 8:30 or so."

The inside of the car was silent for a long few minutes after that, no one really feeling the need to say any more. Kendra was really the one that brought them all together in conversation, it was also her that created the group in a way. The four had all known each other before high school, but it wasn't till she came into their lives that they really became friends.

"Matt, just shooting this out here, and I know that you don't really want to talk about it, but it's important. Well, not really. When you were in that fight, did you really kick a guy...you know...there?" Alisa spat out, fully aware that he wouldn't like the question.

"Actually no."

"Okay, I really didn't think you wou--"

"Kendra did."

A short little chuckle sounded from the back seat, then ignited an explosion of laughter from all passengers. Years ago, if that episode with Chad had never happened, Matt, too, would have laughed along with them. But he knew all too well what she was capable of. Despite her sweet, pretty, and innocent looking outside, the Kendra most people knew, she was the strongest person Matt had ever met. Both mentally and physically. Floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee, so to speak.

"You're g-going to ha-a-a-ave to tell us aaaaallllllll about it, Ma-att," Tyler snorted in between "so funny it hurts" laughs and patting him hard on the shoulder.

After minutes of insufferable chuckling, Matt managed to tune it out and got off the exit without distraction.

"How much longer will this take?" Brandon burst, getting more and more impatient by the mile.

"We're almost there," Matt replied shortly, not taking his eyes off the road ahead.

"Ken's parents are expecting us there at certain time," added Alisa as she turned around in her seat and glared at Brandon. He sank into his seat as if pretending to be invisible. "Or at least Mr. Fraser is. He's an incredibly strict man, but when it comes to his daughter, there's no hesitation."

"He sent us the directions the other day. Got it all up here." Matt took a finger and tapped his head. "We're almost there, another minute or so."

"I'm not worried about how long the ride is going to take," Tyler started. "I just wanna know what happened with Chad."

Alisa turned to face Tyler and smacked him hard on the leg then turned to Matt. His jaw locked in place and his lips pursed together.

"If Ken feels comfortable with it, then we'll tell you."

"Okay," Alisa called energetically, trying to change the subject. "Here's the street. Brandon, try not to faint again."

"That was one time!" protested Brandon.

"That was the only time you two ever met," Tyler snorted sarcastically and stared out the window in awe.

"Here we are..." Matt trailed off at the thought as he looked outside and parked in front of the addressed house. Matt glanced outside with a blank look, making sure the address was correct. It definitely was right.

"That's slightly intimidating," Brandon gasped, he too was staring at the huge, three story house in front of the car.

"You don't even know what that means, dude," retorted Tyler, but not taking his eyes off the mansion.

"Sure I do."

"What is it then?"

"...Scary...?"

"That's enough you two." Matt silenced the car and unbuckled his seat belt, his eyes were also glued. "We didn't come here just to look at it."

Once Matt got out of the car, the others followed suit. The gang quickly stalked up the walk way to the door and suddenly froze.

"Tyler, you better get next to Brandon. We don't want him fainting again." Matt's tone wasn't at all sarcastic.

"One time," Brandon said in protest.

"Well, here goes nothing." Matt took in a deep breath and hesitantly knocked on the door a few times and they all waiting for someone to answer.


End file.
